Did you Notice?
by Starciya
Summary: Why are we fighting yet another war? And why do I have an annoying prince giving me advice in my head? just normal questions when your Queen of a country called Myrr. New and improved! New stuff for those who have already read it! Please R&R!
1. Introductions

This is story of my own creation, It has gone through a editing process recently and i thought i would put up the new and improved version of it. I have tried to go through it and edit mistakes and fix things. Also if you have read this story, I have added things in the later chapters. Please review and tell me what you think!

Chapter one

In the central city Mira in the country of Myrr, A slim girl with her black hair pulled up in a pony-tail looked out a large window overlooking the town. Her stormy blue eyes taking in all the hustle and bustle of the city, trying not to think of how she wanted to disappear forever into it. She let out a sigh before turning around and greeting the thin worried looking man who had just walked in the room.

She saw him look at her clothes and then glare at her while commenting. "My Queen, you know that you shouldn't wear common clothes like breeches now that you are Queen."

The Queen, also known as Meg just shrugged as she sprawled herself on a chair. "But if you knew what I was doing before this, you wouldn't have wanted me in one of my formal gowns, Simon. Anyway these clothes are much more comfy to walk around in." She barely hid a smile as she watched him make a face trying to decide whether to argue with her today.

Simon just went on, "But you will need to change, the delegates from Tigree are early. They should be arriving in a couple of hours instead of tomorrow."

Meg grimaced as she heard this and nodded to Simon before he bustled out the door. She turned to the window cursing her luck as she looked again at the city's occupants running around, wishing she could be down there instead of where she was. It caused her to think how she had been dragged into being Queen again.

While her family line was close enough to the Royal family to be considered possible heirs, it had never been called on. Her father, her grandmother and so on back through their line had always been the official spy masters for her country. She had learned ever since she was old enough to walk, the codes, the languages, and the art of stealth. Meg had developed her magical gift in the way of spy work, spells that caused her not to be noticed, how know if people were telling the truth, how many people were around her at any given time. She was going to become the next spymaster after her father. Her grandma even told her that as long as she kept her focus she would be a good one. Which coming from the old strict bat was a compliment Meg held dear.

Then one day, two years ago, the entire Royal family died. Her father thought that is was a poisoning done by the country that they were currently having a trade embargo with, the Masonites, but they never could prove anything. So the old crystal scepter was brought out of it place in the throne room to point to the next King or Queen of the country of Myrr. And the cursed thing pointed to her. Once she touched the thing, it gave her the knowledge of how to perform all the special, secret Royal families' magical spells. Most of them were war spells, large barriers, large attacks that you could do on an approaching enemy. And she had a hard time doing them. They were to large scale for her, after spending all her life learning to do small secret spells, these big spells were difficult to do. She sighed, at least the counselors hadn't, or she should say, couldn't keep her from the spy work stuff. It kept her sane. She sighed again as she felt somebody come into the room behind her. She turned around to see Adriana, her counselor. She looked at Adriana and just lifted her eyebrow.

Adriana laughed, "So you know all about the speech I am going to give you about being nice to the delegates."

"Yes, but you know I won't be nice, no matter how much you yell at me." Meg said defiantly.

"Why?"

"You know that they are going to treat us like idiots, thinking they can blow some treaty past us and not be anywhere truthful. You know my sources! I wouldn't need to be mean, if they came into this treaty with everything laid out on the table, but they will hem and haw and just get in the way."

"You're not going to give them a chance?"

"Just for you, I'll give them a chance, but that is about it."

"I have heard that their Prince Adam Ront is coming with them." Adriana said off-handedly.

"Great, that way I can finally see if he is the idiot everybody says he is." Meg said with a smile.

Adriana sighed and ordered, "Just go get dressed so you can meet them when they get here."

"Yes, Mother." Meg said sarcastically as she walked out of the room.

* * *

As Adam rode his horse up to the castle, he looked around, absorbing everything with his hazel eyes. He nervously ran his hands through his dark brown hair. His counselors had spent the whole trip reminding him that he needed to get the volatile Queen Margaret on their side. The way they wanted to do that was fool-hardy and very stupid. He looked down at the bracelet in his hands again and wished for the millionth time during this trip that they would just tell the truth and be more open then try and build all these smoke screens to blow past any opposition. But they kept over-powering him on this fact. He was even supposed to act like a puppet through these whole talks, act like the idiot everyone at home thought he was, some of the men that had traveled with him knew he wasn't the idiot but they still pushed him to be the puppet.

They had reached the castle by now, he handed the reins of his horse to a stable boy and followed the Porter inside. He and his companions were shown into a big room. In the middle was a girl in a blue dress with black hair in a loose braid down her back. She was listening to a regal-looking older lady who looked like she was trying to convince her of something. As they got closer to the girl, she turned around and flashed a brilliant smile in their direction. She introduced herself as Queen Margaret and her companion as Lady Adriana.

"I am Prince Adam Ront, These are my counselors Duke Jake of Bethany, Duke Tren of Point Square, and Duke Wynlyn of Tuscant."

"You have two options," The Queen continued on after greeting everybody, "You can join me and I will take you on a tour of the castle or you can go to your rooms refresh yourself, and join me in the tour tomorrow. Which will it be?" She finished with a polite smile.

Without waiting for any input from the counselors, Adam immediately opted for the relax and rest option.

"Of course," The Queen said with another beautiful smile, "I will give you a tour tomorrow morning after breakfast. My servants will show you to your rooms, where a hot bath and dinner will be prepared for you." She looked off to the side and motioned the servants who were there waiting. As Adam turned to follow the servant, he made a quick, indiscreet motion to activate a listening spell that he had already prepared. He attached on to her shoe. Adam was surprised when out of the corner of his eye, he saw her shiver when he attached the spell. He hoped that she hadn't sensed the spell.

* * *

Meg had been listening patiently to Adriana as she was warned again by her to be nice to their guests. When those guests finally arrived, she turned to them giving them a big smile, while trying not to look too bored by the lecture she had just been receiving. They did some quick introductions where after Meg gave them a choice on when to have their tour of the castle. Meg wasn't too surprised when the Prince decided to go to their rooms, a choice she thought they would make after their long ride. As they left the room, Meg couldn't help but shiver as she felt a listening spell attach itself somewhere on her. She watched them out of the corner of her eye as she wondered who did such a quick spell.

Meg just smiled smugly at Adriana, as a reminder to the older lady that she didn't need to worry so much about her being nice to the guests, before she walked out of the room, thinking of ways that she could contrive to fall in a mud puddle or something to an excuse to have her clothes cleaned to take off the listening spell.

As she walked around the castle Meg smiled to herself, no matter what impression she gave off to everyone else she was looking forward to these talks. One, they would give her nobles something to talk about besides her, two, she would get to see if their Prince was the idiot everyone said he was or if he was very intelligent like the rumors she had heard of, and three, hopefully if they could make a treaty she would be able to bring in some much needed trade that the trade embargo with the Masonites was draining them of.

* * *

Adam was frustrated, not only did he learn nothing from the listening spell, but The Queen had been able to get it off of her within hours of it being put on her. Apparently she had gone out into the stables and had the water from washing their horses accidently splashed all over her, forcing her to change clothes. He didn't dare set a new one, This Queen Margaret was making him nervous, she noticed too much.

That morning while they were being given a tour of the castle. She noticed that he had paused, only for a moment to look at the library and wonder if some of the magic books he had been looking for were in there. She had also noticed when she showed them the training grounds, that his annoying counselors were counting the strength in her garrison. Of course to make everything worse she had commented on both with a wry smile, like she was almost daring a response.

He was able to see her try and calm down one of her dissent nobles, A Duke Viggo of Trentsen, as he yelled at her for already starting the talks for the treaty. She had tried to calm him down and explain they hadn't even started the talks and they wouldn't' have without him in attendance. He finally listened to Lady Adriana and allowed himself to be escorted to where the other nobles waited. Adam looked over to the Queen to see her let out a quick breathe and unclench her fists.

He smiled to himself as he thought that she wasn't the only one to notice things. She caught his smile and gave him a small wink before continuing with the tour.

* * *

Tell me what you think, I will always take constructive criticism. I want to make this story the best I can. Thanks for reading. Please Review.


	2. Run!

Chapter two

Adam sat in his rooms twirling a bracelet with a large green stone around his fingers thinking. He knew what was coming, but he couldn't think of a way to avoid it. It had been a week since the talks began and they were going badly. Queen Margaret seemed to be holding out for something, most likely the truth, she kept tactfully hinting that she was waiting for a solid reason to enter into this treaty. At which his counselors would rush into another long list of why this would be a great treaty for the country of Myrr. Adam had a sinking suspicion that she wanted to hear why it would be great for their country but they wouldn't tell her. His councilors were going to resort to the bracelet idea. He didn't think it would work, it wasn't designed to work in the way they wanted it to. He sat down, still twirling the bracelet looking into the fire with his back to the window thinking before dozing off in his seat.

* * *

"Meg!" Adriana tried again. "Why don't you give them a chance?"

"I have explained this several times. They are not being honest. Actually, I would even settle for half-way honest but they aren't telling a single bit of truth. I need to know why THEY think this treaty is so important to THEM, not why it is important to us. What if they are trying to get on our good side so they can attack us from the back and Masonites can attack from the front?"

"But you know that they aren't. We need this treaty. We need the trade, we can't be picky."

"I know… I know we need the trade," Meg said as she rubbed a crick in her neck. "But so do they, let me just deal with them like this for a little while longer. To try and wear them down again, I just have a bad feeling…" she stopped when she saw a look of unbelief on Adriana's face. "What now?"

"You are just being so careful. Last time when we had an important treaty, you were brash and ran right into in. You also caused us to lose that treaty with that stupid duel of yours that caused the Masonite ambassadors death. You made this trade embargo, and now you aren't even trying to help us help relieve the costs of it." Adriana accused.

Meg grimaced at Adriana's remark, she also turned very quiet for a while trying to think of how to say what was on her mind, before starting, "Adriana you know as well as I do that…" She stopped as a middle-aged man came crashing into the room, white and breathing heavy. Meg forgot immediately what she was saying and directed the man to a chair, as she did so she heard Adriana let herself out of the room.

When the room was clear, Meg turned to the man and asked what was wrong, concern in her eyes as she poured him a drink of water.

"The Prince…" he began gasping for air.

"The Prince? Do you mean Prince Adam?" Meg questioned.

He nodded and continued, "News from the front, the Masonites are planning an assassination of the Tigree Prince… tonight…to blame... it on us…."

Meg didn't let him finish before she was running into the next room, stopping briefly to grab her sword where it was hanging off of the chair, before she disappeared through a seemingly solid wall.

She reappeared silently through a wall in Adam's room with her sword still in her hand. As she quickly scanned the room she reached for a throwing knife she kept hidden on the small of her back. She could make out in the dimming firelight two shadowed figures approaching a chair by the fire. She lifted her arm, barely aimed and threw, not pausing to hear him drop. The second came at her with their sword raised. She raised hers to block as she tried to get a look at the chair to see if Adam was there.

When their swords clashed she could see Adam jump up from the chair looking madly around trying to get his bearings. She diverted her full attention to her opponent, and concentrated on taking him alive. Paul would need someone to question about this attack. She heard Adam yell something at the same time she felt the person she thought she had killed come from behind her. Meg felt a searing pain flash through her upper arm as she tried to move out of his way, while still keeping her opponent in front of her. She moved to the side so she could see both men but saw that Adam was currently wrestling the one that had just attacked her. She focused her attention on her opponent and quickly ended the fight, knocking out the assassin.

Breathing deeply she looked over where Adam stood above his victim and smiled. When he looked at her surprised she gave him a mocking bow and said, "You should be more careful, My Prince. It is very dangerous here."

She saw him trying to control a smile as he returned her mocking bow, "It is you who should be more careful, My Queen, for you are the one who is hurt. What am I going to say to your counselors?"

She looked down at her bleeding arm and gave a short laugh, "What do I have to do for you so you won't mention it?"

"I will have to think on that one, and make the request really good." Was his answer.

She chuckled as she looked down and nudged one of the would-be attackers with her foot, before muttering to herself, "Now how to get you two down to Paul so he can find out how you came to be here?" She looked up at Adam and asked, "Do you have rope handy in here?" When he shook his head, she looked about the room, stopping at the bed, "Well then, I guess the Chamberlain gets to yell at me then." She said cheerfully as she threw off the comforter and took off the sheet underneath it. Throwing it to Adam she told him to tie up their guests she had to check something outside in the hall.

She poked her head carefully out of the door checking each sides of the hallway, trying to find the guards that should have been guarding the halls. When she didn't find them, she turned back into the room, thinking, 'Well that explains why they didn't come running when we were fighting. I wonder where they are. I will have to find out later.'

She found Adam finishing his tying job. She told him dryly, "This is what we are going to do. We need to take these fellows to my guy who will talk to these gentlemen and find out why they were up so late past curfew. I have to admit," she continued on with a grimace, "I really don't want anybody to know about these guys quite yet, so I will cast a spell over you and me while we carry these guys to Paul's office. It is a spell that will hide us from view. The one set back of this spell is that any noise you make can still be heard, so we will have to step softly. Any questions?" She turned to look back at Adam who was standing there with a fake confused expression.

It took a moment before she figured out what happened, when she did, Meg looked at him disgusted, "Act like yourself please, I am getting very annoyed at your 'I'm an idiot' routine. Both you and me know that you are not so please just be yourself, at least while you help me get these guys to Paul."

Adam smiled and chuckled, "How long have you known?"

"Since about the first day of the peace talks. You are not allowed to speak much by your lovely councilors but the comments you did make made me wonder about the puppet prince."

"You notice way too much, you know that." Adam said while he came over to her with a makeshift bandage. He motioned for permission to wrap up her arm.

Meg nodded, and said, "If you knew what I was training to be before I became the Queen, you wouldn't think so." She gasped as the pain lessened; she looked sharply over at him, to see him smiling at her. "I didn't know you could heal. I knew that you had magic but not healing powers."

"I only have just a little bit, much to my disappointment. Since I was a third son, while I was growing up I wanted to become a healer but when I was in training I found out that I didn't have enough to get past the first few years. I guess that it was for the best when I became the next heir to the throne." He said sadly.

"How did that happen, by the way? Nobody could ever tell me how your brothers died." Meg cautiously asked.

"Nobody knows. I don't know if anybody cared either. Nobody liked them, more like me but I still have had to tread lightly in order not to follow their fate."

"Is that why you act like an idiot?" Meg questioned softly.

Adam laughed and shook his head in dismay, "You really notice too much. Anyway don't we have to get these idiots down to where ever Paul's office is?"

"Ah, that is right, Can you take the larger guy? I should be able to handle this little fella. Pick him up and then I will cast the no see spell." Meg said while storing the conversation away for later use.

Meg was just whispering that they were about half-way when she felt a tug on her magic. She stopped, looked around and cursed.

"What?" Adam hissed.

"Adriana is looking for me. She is scrying my magic, and since I am currently using it she should be able to find me easily. We need to speed up, I don't want her to know what happened tonight." Meg muttered.

After about five minutes she cursed again and pushed Adam into a room and threw in her guy after him. She quickly took the spell off of herself and tried to stand nonchalantly in the hallway, as if she was waiting for the lady that was walking briskly up the hallway to her.

"Margaret! Where have you been? I have been looking for you everywhere!" Adriana huffed when she was close enough.

"I was talking care of some very urgent business, Adriana. That message that was brought by that messenger really couldn't wait. Actually it still can't, I am in the middle of completing it." Meg finished rapidly.

"You're up to something, and it is something that I should know about." Adriana guessed.

"You'll find out about it eventually but as for right now, you need to leave it to me."

"You're doing things that should be left to your father, or to Paul." Adriana scolded. "It is not proper for a Queen to be running around, doing spy work that can easily be done by others."

Meg made a face, "For one, I have no clue where my father is and second if I left alone tonight's matter we would be in a world of hurt. Just trust me on this." She said calmly.

Adriana made a face ready to back down when she finally noticed the bandage on Meg's arm. "Where did you get that?"

"Doing my important business, which I need to get back to if I can. Please can I?" Meg said sternly before turning around to leave.

"Wait, I need to give you a message from the ambassadors from Tigree. Apparently Prince Adam is missing."

Meg groaned and turned back around, facing Adriana again, "Couldn't he just be out for a walk, or maybe visiting the library. He has been known to disappear before."

"No, oh no Meg. His counselors went into the Prince's room to ask him something and were surprised to find that it looked like a fight had taken place in there. There was even blood on the floor…" She stopped and looked into Meg's level stormy blue eyes, gasped as it finally came together. "It was your blood on the floor, what did you do to the Prince, Meg? You didn't get in another duel, did you? You promised me you wouldn't."

Meg let out a sigh of annoyance, "I didn't do anything to the Prince, Adriana. I only stopped others that were trying to hurt him."

"Then where is he right now? What did you do to him? We can't have another botched treaty because of you."

Meg paused trying to think of a good answer when they heard a voice besides her, "I'm right here, Lady Adriana." Adriana gasped while Meg lowered her head into her hand and let out a slow breathe of air. "You might as well drop the no see spell from me, Queen Margaret. She needs to see that I am alive and well."

"Fine." Meg muttered before releasing the spell, revealing a very much alive prince. Adriana let out a relieved sigh, and mumbled thank goodness under her breathe. Meg hearing this, turned away slightly rolling her eyes.

"Prince Adam, is it really the way that she said; she was helping you against assassins?" Adriana pleaded.

Meg heard him answer, "Yes, it is as the Queen said before she was helping me and asked for my help to bring them to Paul where he could get to the bottom of it." motioning to the two tied up men behind him.

Adriana smiled and happily snapped her fingers twice in the air before answering, "That is good then," she said decisively, "I will have these to escorted to Paul and I will take you back myself to where your party is waiting." While she was talking two servants appeared and started to take care of the two assassins.

Meg leaned up against the wall and made herself disappear as she watched Adriana fuss over the Prince. She watched as he tried to point out to Adriana that she had disappeared only to reassured by Adriana saying, "Don't worry about her, My Prince I will talk to her later about her actions. Now if you would come along."

She watched as he reluctantly followed her councilor back down the corridor. She stood there for a moment deciding if she should go back to her rooms, where Adriana would be waiting for her or follow the servants and talk to Paul about them. She decided to take Paul over Adriana, at least for the moment.


	3. Deceptions

Chapter Three

After Adam had assured his counselors that he was safe and there was no harm done, he shooed them off as fast as he could. He wanted to see if his listening spell was still attached to the Queen's arm. He had attached it when he was bandaging up her arm, using her surprise over his healing magic to hide the placement of the spell. He knew that he couldn't have picked a better time to do it either. She was distracted and worried, if he was lucky she wouldn't notice for a while, giving him time to find out what had caused the large disagreement between Adriana and her.

He sat down in a comfortable chair and sent his magic over the room checking the guards he had placed to make sure he didn't have any listening spells on himself and that no one would disturb him for the next little while. He turned his attention to the listening spell and activated his end. At first he thought that it had been discovered because he couldn't hear anything. He was about to give up when he heard a muffled crash, it almost sounded like book had been thrown a cross the room. He leaned forward listening closely; he began to hear incoherent mumblings. He could imagine Queen Margaret angry, talking to herself, while pacing back and forth in her room. He smiled at that thought wondering where it came from. He wasn't sure exactly but she just seemed the type. He listened closely but only able to catch a few words that she said louder than others.

As he sat there and listened for just over an hour, he began to realize something. He realized that it was _Boring_ listening to only one person. There were only occasional crashes, and yelled curses at stupid people who didn't trust her. He had actually nodded off as the Queen began to calm down. He was only jolted out of his light nap when he heard a door snap shut.

* * *

Adriana walked into the room. "I hoped you have calmed down now, Meg." She said as she approached where Meg was sitting in a chair out on the balcony looking out at the stars.

Meg scoffed and just continued to look out, not even turning to acknowledge that Adriana had walked in the room.

"You understand why I had reason to not trust you." Adriana kept going.

"Reason!…reason!" Meg said heatedly as she rose from the chair and turned to face her counselor, "You had reason not to trust me? Ha! You never have trusted me, you just pretended to. When I was brought here two years ago, I was only eighteen. I had no clue how to run a country, but you stuck by me, got other nobles on my side, made me think that I could trust you to cover my back whenever something happened but _no_ the first time something bad happened _you_ turned on me, not the other way around."

"What do you mean, Meg?" Adriana asked calmly but with a steel glint in her eye.

"What I mean is, when last year the Masonites approached us with the possibility of a treaty. Everyone was all excited but I was worried, but you said that we should give them a chance. Everything I had heard from the spies said that something fishy was going to happen, but no, you said to give them a chance and I did." Meg rambled on as if she had to get this off of her chest or she would burst. "They came slinging every polite insult they could, trying to get us to make a response. And we would have given them a response except the treaty they were offering was so good that it couldn't be true. We were humbled time and time again but you wouldn't let me do anything about it. And I trusted your opinion, until _**I**_was challenged to a duel over some comment I had made."

"Now Meg, that isn't the way they.." Adriana tried to interrupt but Meg kept going.

"I accepted the duel, I do admit fault that I killed him, I really didn't mean to, but it was either him or me." Meg stopped and looked sorrowfully into Adriana's eyes, "But I think the thing that affects me the most is the fact that you didn't stand by me then, just as you didn't stand by me today. You immediately thought it was my fault. You accepted their word over mine… actually a year ago you didn't even listen to my explanation… it was just my fault. I had messed things up." She finally broke eye contact and went and sat down with her back to Adriana.

Adriana looked at the slim girl as she sat down and put her face into her hands and realized for the first time in about a year that Meg was only twenty years old, and that she had only been Queen for a little less than two years now. Despite all the knowledge she knew, her uncanny ability to keep two steps ahead of everyone, and all of the pressure they had been putting on her, she was still only twenty years old. She had been hard on her; she took a step forward before quickly stepping back and shaking her head. What was she talking about? This girl was one of the best pretenders she knew… she could make almost anyone believe her, and Adriana wasn't going to fall into that category.

She was about to speak when Meg looked up and commented softly, "Would it help you to trust me if I let you use a truth spell on me?"

Adriana stood there looking at Meg stunned, there was no way this girl would really let her use a truth spell on her. Meg always had too many secrets, too many tidbits of information that she knew. But as she gazed into Meg's eyes, Adriana could see that Meg was serious. She spoke quietly back, "You would really let me perform a truth spell on you? Why?"

Meg let out a slow breath, looked away for a moment and then looked back up into Adriana's face. "I need you on my side, Adriana." Meg spoke quietly but clearly, "Leadership is not something given to me by the scepter, it is given to me by the people who follow me. Right now I am not the Queen of Myrr… the council is. The council does not trust me, but they trust you." Meg's stormy blue eyes looked into the depths of Adriana's soul. "In order for me to be the Queen this country needs and the Queen that stupid scepter wants me to be, I need you on my side. You don't have to completely trust me, I need someone who will think through actions and decisions with me." Meg finally lowered her eyes, "And if I have to submit to a truth spell then so be it, it has to be done."

Adriana smiled as she held up her hand and concentrated. A small ball of white flame appeared, she motioned with her hand to send the ball to float in front of Meg. Meg looked at it with distain and commented, "If a question is too personal or has no relevance to the matter at hand I will not answer the question. Got that?"

Adriana smiled crookedly before answering, "Of course, what you answer and do not answer tells me a lot though. Anyway you know the drill, if the ball stays white you are telling the truth, if it turns pink you are only telling half-the truth and if it turns all the way red you are lying. So your first question is always the simple one, What is your name?"

"Margaret Salmson." Came the calm reply.

"How old are you?"

"20 years."

"Have you ever lied to me?"

Meg glared at her before answering a reluctant, "Yes." The ball stayed white.

Adriana smiled coyly raising her eyebrows, and remarked, "And I should trust you?"

Meg grimaced, "They are usually small lies though, like when you ask me where I have been, or where I got certain wounds. Things like that. It is easier to lie than to get a half-hour lecture on how Queens don't act like that." The ball again stayed white.

Adriana looked at her oddly before asking, "Is that what all those lies are? Are little ones to prevent lectures?"

Meg paused for a moment with a look of concentration on her face. "Yes, everything that I can remember at the moment at least. I pass on the important events or information to you or one of the council in one way or another." Adriana looked at the ball of white flame waiting for it to turn, which it never did.

Adriana sighed, "Next question then, What is your version of how the Masonite ambassador got killed?"

Meg looked down, "I was cocky, in a way you are right, I caused this situation but they were still asking for it. I rose to one of their remarks, saying a remark of my own. I was later challenged to a duel. He said it was going to be a safe duel and no one would get hurt. That we didn't need to tell anyone, but we could solve it ourselves, we would even use practice swords. And I was stupid enough to believe him. So when the appointed hour arrived I arrived alone with a practice sword and one small boot knife I never go anywhere without." She smiled bitterly, "and he arrived armed with a real sword and five guards to keep me from escaping. While we did have a fair fight just me and him, I had a smaller inferior weapon and he had more skill than me. I wonder the luck I had because even if I was armed with a real sword, I still would have lost. But I had other not so honorable tricks up my sleeve as well. I somehow had pulled my boot knife from where it was hidden and threw it when he was coming in for the final blow. As he went down I was attacked by the guards and was fighting them when the palace guards had come in." Meg stopped and looked at the white ball of flame before her before looking beyond it to see Adriana's face. Adriana was looking at her with a white face. Meg smiled a small smile and commented, "I know, I know I probably wouldn't have believed it either." At that comment the ball flashed pink, Meg sighed, then laughed and rectified, "Actually I would have believed it with everything that was going on at the time." The ball went back to its original color.

Adriana bowed her head and slowly apologized, "I am sorry that I didn't believe you, I just wanted that treaty to go well, so badly that when it didn't… I am sorry." She paused momentarily, "But what about the treaty with Tigree, why are you causing the talks to go slower?"

"That I am not quite sure about, I just feel uneasy with them, or should I say I feel uneasy with some of the counselors. I think, and this is only a thought, but I think that one or two of them might be in league with the Masonites. But I have not been able to confirm anything using any of my resources." Meg said frustrated. "Anyway, what do you recommend that we do about the other counselors?"

"I think we need you to back off, just a little bit." Adriana said hesitantly.

"Why?"

"I don't think that we will be able to bring the council on our side for this battle, we might just have to let the treaty go through and be on our guard for any treachery."

"Okay, I think I can do that. I will back off and not harass them anymore." She looked gratefully at Adriana, "Let's see what happens next."

Adriana leaned forward, "I have one last question for you, Meg." She started with an innocent look in her face, "What do you think of the Tigree prince, Adam?"

All Adam heard after that through the listening spell was Adriana's light laughter.

* * *

Author's note-Hopefully this chapter filled in some of the blanks from the last chapter. Thanks for those that have reviewed they keep me thinking of the story and writing.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter four

Adam leaned back in his chair, trying to organize his thoughts, after hearing The Queen and Adriana talk, he was beginning to understand all of the glares, and grumblings her counselors had made when she made a comment during the talks. They were afraid she would mess up the treaty, in a way she was by holding up the talks with her search for the truth. Adam smiled as a plan began to tumble into place; it even helped him repay his debt to her for saving his life. He would help her get the treaty to work!

The next day Meg's councilors were given a surprise. When they were all around the table getting ready to continue the discussions, she just sat there and smiled pleasantly at them. The first few hours were spent in shock, everyone expected her to interrupt the talks with a question or an idea that would halt the progress of the morning. Finally one of Adam's counselors couldn't take it anymore and demanded to her, "Why aren't you saying anything?"

Meg cocked her head at him and said airily, "I had a long talk with my councilor, Lady Adriana, yesterday and she convinced me that what I was doing was just holding up a good thing." She stopped and sighed, "I need to apologize to you all about how difficult I have been that last few weeks through these talks, I thought I was looking out for my country but in the end I was slowing down the help we need so desperately. Please forgive me." She finished quietly with a small bow of her head.

Adam wanted to applaud Meg on her performance. She had his councilors in the palm of her hand after saying that, so of course they forgave her. On the other hand her councilors were looking at her wondering where the twist was. He could imagine some of them wondering, what was she planning to have such a big change of attitude? She stayed polite and cordial through the whole morning session; although her councilors not quite trusting her would find ways to interrupt her whenever she tried to make any comments to the talks.

After they had dismissed the talks to take a break for lunch, Adam waited in the hall for Meg to finish talking to the various people who wanted to really know what was with the sudden change of heart. To these people she gave the same heartfelt apology that she had given in the session that morning. As Meg finally swept gracefully out of the hall, He stopped and bowed to her, wondering if he should mention anything about her great performance, but quickly decided against it. He wanted to keep her unaware of the listening spell for as long as possible. "I have something for you, as a thank you for last night." Adam smoothly commented as she curtsied back. "A mere trinket that you will enjoy," He stopped to pull a small box out of his pocket. "In fact, you will be most puzzled by it." Smiling he gave her the box which she graciously accepted. Adam then turned and started to walk away, before stopping and calling over his shoulder, "If you solve it, please come tell me… oh and also if any of my councilors ask if I gave it to you, please tell them yes, it might get them off my back about it." He continued cryptically as he continued down the hall.

Confused Meg opened up the box revealing a pretty bracelet with a large green emerald inlaid in it. Muttering to herself, "Why would this puzzle me? It looks like just a regular bracelet. Hmm." Forgetting about lunch, she began walking towards her rooms, more specifically her workroom asking herself questions all along the way.

"This is where you have been hiding, My Queen." Meg heard Adriana commenting from the doorway of the workroom. "Simon has been looking for you everywhere; he seems to think that you are going to try something at the banquet tonight."

"Why would I try anything at the banquet tonight?" Meg asked not looking up from the table.

"For one thing it is in half an hour and you still haven't gotten dressed for it."

This reply caused Meg's head to jerk up and she looked surprised at Adriana. "What do you mean in half an hour? I should still have several hours before it starts."

Adriana just raised an eyebrow and cocked her head to the window causing Meg to look out at the setting sun, "Blast!" Meg cried as she set something down on the table and rushed out of the doorway. "Tell Simon I won't be late, I will be there in a few minutes." Adriana just smiled and left the scrambling queen to get ready.

Adam sat waiting in one of the sun rooms with all the other councilors, they were waiting for the young Queen Margaret. When he was had spare time he would check on the Queen and listen to her mumbling as she tried to figure out is puzzle. She had figured out that she couldn't get the bracelet to clasp, and there was some type of magic infused in it but that was all. He also overheard that she had lost track of the time and was currently scurrying to get ready. Adam saw movement out of the corner of his eye and stood with all the others as she came gracefully into the room. Looking at her perfectly done hair and immaculate dress, Adam thought to himself that he wouldn't have known she got ready in half an hour if he hadn't heard the conservation for himself. She quickly swept herself into a curtsy and apologized for being even the slightest bit late, she completely forgot about the time and asked for forgiveness.

Late that night Adam was listening in on Meg and Adriana talking about how the talks were going and her councilor's reactions. So far everyone was reacting the way they thought they would, even down to Duke Viggo with his interrupting Meg to keep her from commenting on anything. Everything was going to plan, but Meg hoped that the treaty would turn out alright and that this wasn't a set-up. As they were talking on this subject, Adam could hear a door open and close quietly. He heard a lady whisper, "My Queen." Before there was silence and then his spell went dead. He cursed his luck that one of them had run a listening spell test and had found his spell.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter five

Meg held her hand up to the woman who just came into the room. She quickly sent out her magic to check to see if a listening spell had been attached to the women. A yellow light briefly flashed on her arm, she scowled as she tried to think how a listening spell had been attached to her. She quickly worked the dissolve spell while still wondering who was good enough to put a spell on her without her noticing. She then remembered Prince Adam wrapping her arm, surprising her with his healing magic and cursed to herself.

"What's wrong, Meg?" Adriana asked pulling her out of her thoughts.

Meg looked over at her and said, "The Prince is much cleverer than I thought that is all, He is one that I need to watch more carefully." Only her eyes showed how annoyed she really was. Meg then quickly turned to the woman who was still standing waiting to give her report. "What did you bring me about the bracelet?"

The women bowed low and then brought out a packet of notes, "Sir William gave me these to give to you. He also said to tell you he is not quite sure what the magical properties of the bracelet are without looking at it himself. Sir William also apologizes that he can't come personally to the castle to examine it himself, he said something about his wife, Lady Katelyn, keeping a close eye on him and not letting him go anywhere." She reported this last part with a smile creeping up on her face.

Meg thanked her as she took the packet of notes from her and dismissed her. Meg looked at the notes and knew that Adriana was curious about what she needed Sir William for, so when she was done, Meg passed the notes to Adriana, and commented that they needed to get Sir William down here as soon as possible.

Adriana absently looked at the notes while she thought, "That ball next week that we are throwing in celebration of the peace talks, do you think…. I mean the council has been wanting to give Lady Katelyn recognition for all the work she has been doing for the people who have lost trade because of the embargo with Mason, We could invite her up to the ball and have her give a speech and all the legal mumbo-jumbo that goes with it."

"Adriana! You're brilliant! Please have the notice sent out at once, and also put in the notice, in order to make sure everything is prepared for the big moment, Both Sir William and Lady Katelyn will need to come as soon as they possibly can." Meg exclaimed, "Hopefully Sir William can figure it out the bracelet, but in the mean time I plan on going to Old Bill for a couple of hours. I'll see you in the morning, Adriana."

Adriana stood up alarmed, "At this time? Old Bill? Why?"

Meg spoke slowly so Adriana won't miss any details, "I am going to Old Bill because I want a copy of this bracelet made. I am going to see if I can shock any information out of somebody on Prince Adam's side. I am doing it late because I don't want anybody to know that is what I am doing. Is that alright with you?"

Adriana reluctantly nodded her assent knowing Meg would do it anyways. Meg silently slipped out of the room, went to her room and changed into clothes that were easier to get around in. Then she started to slip out of the castle. She could have used one of the secret passageways that would have made it a lot easier to slip out with but she was in the mood to challenge herself and slipping out in front of the guards nose was always fun. Once she made it out of the castle she began to head toward a little jewelry shop on the opposite side of town. She briskly walked down the street keeping her eye out for any thieves, but she wasn't too worried there weren't many people out at this time of night.

Meg went around to the back of the store and knocked two times followed by three quick ones. She could hear Old Bill loudly making his way to the door. When he opened it he smiled up at her and motioned her to come in. "What can I do for you today, My Queen?"

"Please, I've told you when I am here it is just Meg. I don't want anybody to realize the Queen is here or I will never get back to the castle without talking to hundreds of people who want something." She grimaced at that last thought.

"Sorry Meg," He said her name slowly, "What can I do for you?"

She held up a bracelet, "I want you to make an exact copy of this bracelet. And quickly too."

Old Bill shuffled over to her and took the bracelet. Looking at it carefully he started to evaluate what he would need for the replica. He looked at the green emerald and glanced at Meg, "I don't have this kind of emerald laying around, you're going.." He stopped when he saw that she was holding up an emerald. "That works, I guess." He set the bracelet on his work table and started taking measurements, and drawings of it. "Why is it so important that it be an exact replica?" he asked while he worked.

"I really can't tell you, what I can tell you is that I am trying to trick somebody. Does it look familiar to you?" She asked off-handily.

Old Bill scowled at it before replying, "Never seen it before in my life."

"How about something similar to it? You will notice that you can't clasp it, I also know there is magic infused in it. I am trying to figure out what it does."

"So you want the replica to clasp? So you can wear it to try and get some information out of the person who gave it to you?"

"Something like that. Why am I always surprised on how fast you figure things out?"

The Old man huffed, "Because people see that I am old and therefore can't think."

"I guess so."

"You probably don't want to leave the bracelet here, Am I right?"

"Yes you are," Meg replied.

"I have enough detail to make the basic shape, Can you come back tomorrow night, so I can get the details right?"

"Yes, I can do that." Meg answered as she picked up the bracelet, "Thank you, just remember to give me a price so I can pay you what you deserve." And then she walked out the door, leaving the old man to his musings as he gathered the materials to make the bracelet.

After a boring morning of listening to the two groups of councilors debating and arguing back and forth on different aspects of the treaty which she wasn't allowed to speak more that a couple of words in. Meg was currently spending an even more boring afternoon, having her toes stepped on every few steps or so.

"Adriana!" She cried breaking the dancing hold with her partner Simon, "Why do I need to have more dancing lessons? I thought that you had deemed my dancing acceptable almost a year ago." She quickly started to walk towards Adriana.

"Because we didn't teach you the dancing steps from Tigree. And at the ball next week you will have to dance with the Prince and his councilors, I won't have you making us all look like fools." Adriana stated matter-of-factly.

"Then why do I need to dance with Simon?" Meg whispered pointing back at the man standing in the middle of the dance floor. "The man has two left feet and by the time we are done I won't be able to walk, never less dance gracefully for the _people from Tigree_." The last part coming out as a spat.

Adriana looked up at Meg's stormy blue eyes which were narrowed in anger. "Simon is the only one available who knows the steps." She said with an intense whisper trying to calm the girl down. "You need to learn them, if your toes are in danger, learn them quickly so you don't have to dance as long."

"That is a simple answer, learn quickly before your toes fall off," Meg taunted as she turned around making her way back to the middle of the dance floor. She had just arrived there when a servant boy followed by Prince Adam came in through the door. Meg stopped and looked expectantly from the boy to the Prince waiting for one of them to speak.

"S..sorry… M..my Queen," the boy stammered," but I have been sent to bring Simon of Trenom to the Sun Room. The cloth merchants are here to discuss what is needed for the ball." Meg looked at the boy who stood there fidgeting, fighting to keep the smile off of her face. He must be new to be so anxious around her. She turned to Simon and said with a gallant look on her face, "Thank you Simon for your time, it looks like you have to get back to your duties."

Simon bowed briefly before shooing the young boy out of the room before him. Meg then turned and looked at the Prince. She raised her eyebrows expectantly waiting for him to state the reason why he was here.

Adam smiled lopsidedly before commenting, "I was just wandering around looking for the smaller library when I saw you in here and thought I should drop in. I hope your afternoon isn't ruined because of Simon's sudden departure."

Meg couldn't help smiling back before commenting, "Not anymore."

Adriana scowled and angrily remarked that she wished that Meg hadn't let Simon go, now how was she to learn the Tigree dances.

"Tigree dances?" Adam asked. "If you need someone to teach you, this is one area I can help you with." Meg looked over at Adriana alarmed just in time to see a shadow of a smile disappear. Meg glared at Adriana to let her know that she would get her back.

Adam walked gallantly over to where Meg was standing, bowed deeply before extending his hand. Meg giving a large fake smile accepted his hand and let herself be guided into position. As she was walked through the steps of the dance she couldn't help noticing that he was a much better dancer than Simon. She found herself relaxing a little in his hold. He looked down at her and smiled, "I take it I'm a better dancer than Simon is."

She gave a little laugh, "Was it that obvious?"

"To me it was, probably only because I can feel you relax. Does that mean you trust me, even just a little bit?" he said with a sly smile.

"Coming from the person who put a listening spell on me, No I don't trust you not even a little bit." Meg threw back.

"I was hoping you wouldn't find it and I could eavesdrop on much more than I did, but all good things must come to an end." He commented sadly.

"Although I must admit you hid it very cleverly. I didn't have a clue it was on me. Expect me to repay you for that kind favor sometime though." She said as she smiled up at him.

"I won't expect it any other way." He said calmly, "How are you doing on the bracelet? Figured anything out yet?"

Meg laughed "As if I would tell you if I did, you will find out when I have solved your little puzzle."

Adam just smiled absently at this comment and looked around the floor they were dancing on, "Lady Adriana is looking over here rather happily."

Meg just made a face, "I bet she is planning a wedding." When Adam just looked at her confused she continued, "Don't you know," she said in mock horror, "Everybody always expects Princes and Princesses to immediately fall in love as soon as they have had their first dance." Her voice went quiet as she stopped dancing and looked at the floor. "Sometimes I wonder if that is all they see me as, marriage material for a proper King." She then looked up at him and smiled her brilliant smile and winked at him before turning to Adriana and calling out, "You just saw me perform that dance perfectly, so that means I am off to take care of some matters of state. Thank you Prince Adam you have been a wonderful partner." She finished with a curtsy and then briskly walked out of the room, leaving Adriana sputtering for her to stop and Adam standing confused in the middle of the room.

* * *

Author's note- Thanks for reading – I love weekends because I have time to sit down and type. Please review and tell me how I am doing. I love reading them.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

When the midnight hour stuck, Meg found herself at Old Bill's Jewelry shop once again. She was sitting in a chair leaning against the wall, listening to Old Bill tell stories of his younger days as he painstakingly worked on the bracelet in his hands to make it look like the one on the table just before him. Meg enjoyed hearing his stories, and always wondered how much of them were true. She kept him company late into the night until just before dawn when he held up the fake bracelet and pronounced it finished. Meg smiled sleepily and kissed him on his cheek thanking him for all of his help. She picked up the real and the fake bracelet putting them in her pockets before letting a heavy purse fall to the table as she walked out the door.

She quickly returned to the castle hoping to catch a quick nap before that morning's treaty debate started. She thought bitterly to herself that she should just sleep through it today, she wouldn't be missed, and she was more there as a figurehead anyway. She sighed as she reached her room in the castle and collapsed on the bed, she knew she had to go. For one thing if she had any ideas about how to make the treaty better all she had to do was pass the word along to Adriana or Simon and they would present it to the council for her. She was having thoughts about using Prince Adam for this purpose as well, for in the last couple days of talks he had been starting to shed the idiot pose and participating in the talks. In fact in her eye he was begin to lead the talks, she wondered again if he wasn't planning something. She didn't have much time to think about this before sleep claimed her.

When Meg walked in to the council room she was looked magnificent, giving off no hint that she hadn't gotten much in sleep the last few days. She went through the morning looking forward to a good nap in the afternoon. When she wearily began her ascent up to her room after lunch she was stopped and asked if she wanted to go out for a ride with a few of their councilors and the Tigree councilors. She smiled and sent her apologies saying that she wasn't feeling well and should lay down and take a rest, but thank you for inviting her.

She made it up to her room and looked out her window to see who was going on the ride. She could see Adriana, Simon and several others from her council. She looked around looking for the Prince, she found him coming up to where everyone else stood. He was wearing a sleeveless shirt and vest, and her sleep-deprived mind noticed that he had a gold circlet on his right upper arm. She caught herself wondering about it because he never wore any other jewelry. She dismissed it as she turned around and sought her much needed nap. Sir William and Lady Katelyn should be arriving this evening and she wanted to be awake and alert when she talked to him about her mysterious bracelet.

Adam was enjoying being on a horse again, actually being outside for more than half an hour was bliss in his mind. He always hated when he was stuck inside doing work all day. He was a little disappointed that the Queen didn't join them, because he knew she would take up his challenge to a race. Nobody else would, they were all taking a careful purposeful pace through the path. Adam sighed in annoyance but quickly made himself think of the bright side and that was that he was outside. After an hour of that careful riding they finally arrived at a small lush meadow. Here they dismounted and let their horses go to graze. Adam flopped down enjoying the sun on his face, and closed his eyes. He had almost drifted off to sleep when he heard whispers coming from the right of him. He tried to ignore them until he heard the word, "Majesty is impossible". With those words they had his attention, he knew they weren't his councilors, one man sounded like Simon.

"It is only three months until the Queen's 21st birthday," said a gruff voice, "Everyone else in history was married by the time they were 21. She needs to be too."

"Not everybody was married when they were 21, and if you bring that up with her she will tell you the names and when they lived. I should know, when I brought it up last time I was stuck for a half an hour listening about them all." Simon whined.

"We need to find someone who she can marry, so we will have someone reliable to lead this country. She is"

Adam who had heard enough interrupted him, "You need someone reliable? Or you just need someone who doesn't wear a skirt daily? If you looked at what your Queen does, how hard she works to know what is going on and how to fix it, you wouldn't be saying those things when she isn't around. If you were my councilors you wouldn't be given the second chance to say those things again. You would be dismissed." He took a deep breath trying to calm himself down. He stood up and made an act of brushing his clothes off, before he turned and looked at the group of men that were there. They just stared at him, he lifted his eyebrows and commented, "You have a Queen currently on the throne that is working hard to rule the kingdom fairly and is trying to improve it. You could have been very unlucky and had one that is selfish and doesn't care about how she rules. The sooner you see that the happier both she and you will be, because you won't be fighting each other anymore." He let out a long sigh and then walked out to where his horse was grazing. Wondering if he should have even opened his mouth, he might have made the situation worse.

Meg woke up with a start to notice that the sun was setting, she pulled herself out of bed wishing she could have slept longer. She rang for a servant to bring her up some dinner knowing that those who had gone on the ride would have already eaten. When she had eaten she went off to find out if Sir William and Lady Katelyn had arrived yet. She found both of them talking in the main hallway talking to Adriana. She smiled as she walked up to them, "Adriana, you should have woken me up and told me that they had arrived already. I am sorry that I didn't greet you properly." She said the last to the smiling couple.

"Oh, that is alright My Queen. Adriana told me that you weren't feeling well, so it is good that you were able to rest to recover your strength." Lady Katelyn spoke sweetly.

"Thank you, you are too kind. I am so glad that you could make it, I am looking forward to your speech at the ball." Meg responded back just as sweetly.

Lady Katelyn lightly laughed and waved her hand as she began to walk down the hall with Adriana, "I'm sure you are looking forward to my speech but what you are looking forward to most is my husband's expertise on something, isn't it. Well, you can have him until 10 so use you time wisely."

Sir William just gave Meg a weak smile and shrugged, "My wife has a sixth sense for these types of things."

A couple hours later Meg and Sir William could be found trying to test the magical properties of what Meg now called "the stupid bracelet". Meg was so frustrated, she couldn't figure out this stupid bracelet, she couldn't allow herself to force herself back into the talks because she promised Adriana she wouldn't, she wasn't getting any reliable information from the Masonite side of the border and to top it off her councilors were bothering her about the marriage thing again. She always hated it when they started talking marriage. She pushed it from her mind and back to what Sir William was saying.

"I am not sure what this bracelet does, My Queen. I can't find any reference to a single magical bracelet with the few capabilities that we know of."

Startled Meg looked at him, "Single? Does it have to be single? Prince Adam may have only given me one, but I wonder if that means he may have another one laying around." She looked into his eyes, her wide with excitement. Maybe they found the clue they need to break the puzzle.

Sir William pondered this new idea, "That is entirely possible. I know there are rumors that the Tigree royal family posses magical artifacts that let them read people's minds and talk to people miles away. We should try and investigate this and see if this bracelet is, in fact, one of a set." Meg was left to start this on her own because Lady Katelyn came to claim her husband for the night.

Meg soon fell asleep at her worktable over a book about magical jewelry of Tigree looking for paired bracelets instead of single ones.

Meg slowly woke up to her back complaining of her sleeping position. She winced as she sat up, stretching. Looking over the window she saw that it was still the middle of the night. She stood up and decided to take a quick walk to stretch herself out before she went to sleep again. She walked out onto the inner wall looking out at the stars when she saw somebody ahead of her leaning up against the wall looking out into the city. As she came closer she recognized Adam.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter seven

"What are you doing here at this time of night?" Meg asked as she walked closer.

"I could ask you the same question," Adam replied.

Meg smiled widely at him, "My castle, anyway I asked first."

Adam sighed and looked back over the castle wall, "I haven't been sleeping well lately and was hoping a walk might help me sleep."

Meg came up beside him and looked over the city, "I just needed to stretch a little, I fell asleep in an awkward position." She admitted.

"Awkward position, do you mean over a desk?"

Meg smiled and chuckled, "Maybe. Why would you guess that?"

"My father does it all the time; I am beginning to think that it will be my curse as well." Adam winced as he stated that.

That caused Meg to laugh harder, "I know when everybody looks at those in power, sometimes all they see is the parties or fun we have and never see the sleepless nights or splitting headaches we get from all that blasted paperwork." She turned back to the doorway just in time to see a young page stumble through it, she turned her head toward Adam and with a sad smile commented, "Speaking of which I believed he is about to summon me to more such blessed items. I hope you can get to sleep." And with that said she gracefully glided over to the young page was standing.

"I wonder what she has to go do." Adam asked himself. He stood looking at the doorway for a little while longer before heading that way himself in search for his bed.

The next afternoon Meg sat at her desk in her office looking over all the paperwork that she had let slide over the last week or so. She had been there for over two hours and it still didn't look like she had made a dent. She had just picked up another finance report when Adriana walked in. Meg set the report back down and smiled at Adriana before motioning her to sit. As she sat Adriana looked with a slight smile over the loaded desk. Meg grimaced and remarked, "I know, I know I should have gotten to them sooner, but at least I am here on my own free will and you didn't have to convince me to come do it."

Adriana smiled sweetly, "I know, it actually gave me time to come warn you that your council is looking for you." When she saw Meg's questioning look, she continued. "They want to speak to you again about the marriage thing. I don't think you're going to get out of it, they will wear you down eventually."

"They are very persistent, aren't they." Meg commented lightly, "But I really don't want to get married to a stupid prince from some other country just to make a treaty. I… I… just want… phooey on them," She exclaimed as she pushed away from her desk and stood to look out the window. She looked down at the courtyard where she could see her council walking across it, most likely coming up here after searching her rooms. She debated about just disappearing and not letting them find her. Meg dismissed that, it would just make them madder at her and when they finally found her she would be in for a two to three hour lecture instead of just one. "Adriana, do you think there is any way to distract them? I was hoping this treaty debate with Tigree would have distracted them longer."

"I think it is the fact that your 21st birthday is coming up so soon that has them in this uproar. I don't think you're going to be able to distract them." Adriana said regretfully.

"Hmm….." Meg responded thinking. "What if we have a huge celebration, invite all the eligible princes and princess to a two week party of sorts. We will have dances, picnics, musicals, the works. Do you think that preparing that will keep them busy for a while?"

Adriana looked thoughtfully at Meg, "It could work, you might be getting yourself in trouble though. They will want you to pick somebody at this celebration."

"But then I could say that I have tried. And I am thinking of the proper choice before I make such a choice that has such an impact on the future of my country." Meg finished with a glowing smile.

"Meg, It is a good idea, I hope you can pull it off." Adriana finished just as the door opened to admit in the council. Several of them were puffing and red in the face. Meg saw this and asked dramatically, "Whatever is the matter? Some of you look like you just ran a race. What is wrong?"

"What is wrong? What is wrong? You dare ask that, we have been looking for you everywhere." One of them started.

"But I have been here all afternoon, did you ask any of the footmen where I was before you started off on your adventure. I am sure anyone of them would have been able to cut off at least a few of your places to look for me. But anyway, let us dismiss that. You are here now, what can I do for you?" Meg said calmly.

"We are here to discuss you getting married. It is not right for a Queen to rule by herself."

"Am I doing that bad of a job that you feel I need a husband to do my job?" Meg said with a sob. "I thought I was doing a good job, the treaty is going well, and I have been keeping up with all the reports and affairs of the kingdom. What can I do better? I also was just talking with Lady Adriana about having a big two week celebration for my birthday, and inviting all the surrounding princes and princess out for it. So I could get to know the people I will working with. And I was hoping to surprise you with an announcement of that but I have been so busy with the treaty and the affairs of the kingdom that I haven't time to put it together, and there is the ball in a couple of days. And also I kept thinking might be a really bad idea," Finally Meg was interrupted.

"No, no we aren't saying that you are doing a bad job, we would just like you to be well looked after. And I really like your idea of inviting all those people to a celebration, it would help to met people and help build alliances." One of the councilors said, Meg looked up to see that it was Viggo of Trentsen who was talking.

Meg's face lit up, "You really like my idea? I didn't know if you would or not."

Viggo replied, "Yes, we do. And you're right about not having enough time to do it yourself. Why don't you let us make all the preparation for it and we will keep you informed." He waited for her nod of acceptance and then ushered everyone but Meg and Adriana out the door.

Meg waited for the door to close before grinning at Adriana and saying, "Now how did you like that performance?"

"I think you might have over done it… just a little bit."

Making a face, Meg answered, "You're probably right. I just didn't want to get lectured again on all the benefits of a husband. So I distracted them before they had a chance. All I can hope now is they don't let this two week celebration get out of hand. In a couple of hours you might want to go suggest to them that we shouldn't leave the Masonite Prince out of the festivities. So we will have to have everybody sign a magical contract promising that they will do no harm to another, or something like that." Meg sat down in her chair sighing and looking out the window, saying almost to herself, "I hope this idea doesn't get out of hand, it could cause a lot of troubles."

As Meg slipped into her bed that night she was thinking about the bracelet again. Sir William thought he knew what the bracelet was. He explained that it was one of a pair that allowed the two wearers to talk mind to mind. They could also only be put on by the person who had been freely given the main bracelet. Sir William guessed that this bracelet was probably the second bracelet and that Prince Adam was the only one who could clasp the bracelets on somebody. The only problem was they couldn't find the main bracelet. Meg had personally searched Prince Adam's room earlier in the afternoon while he was in the library being distracted by Simon and Adriana. And it wasn't there. She smiled to herself, as she thought I will wear my fake one tomorrow and see if I can shock the information out of anybody. She had also heard an interesting report from the would be assassins of Prince Adam. It was saying that they didn't think the main person behind it was the Masonites. They just were helping because of how it would benefit them. But the main person was somebody from the Prince's council that came with him. There are rumors that it could be the Duke Wynlyn of Tuscant. He might have also been behind one of Prince Adam's older brother's deaths. Hopefully she would get a full report on that tomorrow as well. She smiled as she closed her eyes tomorrow should be an interesting day.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

After eating breakfast Adam was walking into the council room, as he approached the table he quickly looked around to see who was there and who wasn't. He noticed the Queen was talking excitedly to one of his councilors, 'she sure is talking with her hands a lot this morning' he thought as he began to look around again. As he turned his head, out of the corner of his eye he caught a bright flash of gold. He looked back over to the Queen, to her wrist where he saw the bracelet around her right wrist. He stood there looking at it, not quite sure to believe what he was seeing. She shouldn't have been able to put it on. Then how was she wearing it? Almost as if she felt the power of his gaze she turned and looked up at him, when she saw his face she smiled widely and waved at him with her right hand, the bracelet twinkling innocently on her wrist.

Adam forced himself to smile back and then look away. How was he going to ask her how she got the bracelet to clasp? How did she somehow keep throwing him for a loop? He sat down and tried to organize his thoughts. He was pulled out of his thoughts several times as his councilors tried to get him to participate in the proceedings of the treaty. After the third time he forced himself to pay attention and start leading the discussion.

As they dismissed for lunch, Adam jumped up and headed quickly to intercept the Queen as she was headed out of the room. "That is a very pretty bracelet you have." He remarked as she was about to walk out the door.

She smiled as she turned around holding up her arm to show the object of discussion off, "Thank you so much, I have fallen in love with this bracelet since it has occupied so much of my time lately."

"What I would love to know is how you were able to get it to clasp?" Adam asked sweetly.

The Queen just looked up at him and smiled, "Now maybe that ought to by my puzzle for you. If you would excuse me, My Prince Adam, I need to go talk to some of your councilors." Before she turned she gave him a saucy wink and gracefully caught up to someone else walking down the corridor.

Late that evening Adam was returning to his room after a long walk around the gardens. He was trying to think of a way to finish up these talks. The ball was in two days and he was anxious to have the treaty signed before the ball. Which meant they needed to be signed tomorrow. Adam opened up the door to his room to find the Queen in the armchair by the fire, legs draped over one arm of the chair, reading a book he had left on the table next to it.

When she saw him, she put the book down and quickly stood up, with her arms open wide she exclaimed, "Where have you been? I have been waiting for you for hours."

Adam crossed his arms and glared at her.

"Okay, so it hasn't been hours, but really you know better than to keep a Queen waiting." Meg said nonchalantly.

Adam just narrowed his eyes and asked, "How did you get in here? I have alarm spells all over the room."

"Maybe you aren't as good as you thought you were." Meg calmly said as she sat back down in the chair. "Anyway, I have news for you. Although can you please come and sit in a chair like a civilized gentleman and not glare at me from across the room." She beaconed to a chair across from her.

Making a face Adam went and sat down in it and raised his eyebrows to motion to her to start.

She just smiled and asked, "Are there any listening spells in here? There are certain people I don't think would like to know that you are hearing this."

His response was just to glare at her.

"Okay, okay, I get the hint. No listening spells. This news is about your assassination attempt from a couple of weeks ago. While all the clues point to the Masonites, there are several hints that say it was somebody from your side that is handing out the orders." She paused as she looked at him, registering how he reacted. "You don't seem surprised." She stated.

"No, the fact that on the night of the attempt, my councilors were looking for me. That is something that they never did before nor have done again." He said calmly.

"Good, that makes it easier for me to make you believe. I think that it is Duke Wynlyn of Tuscant. I am only 95% sure on this statement, although I don't think I am wrong. You need to watch him closely, I don't trust him."

Adam thought about that before replying, "I will take that into consideration, now is that all you have to tell me because I would like to know about the bracelet now. Or now that I have had time to think about it, is it just a very good fake?"

Meg broke out into a brilliant smile, "I knew you would figure it out once you got past the shock. Your guess it correct, My Prince." She said with a bow of her head. "Adriana didn't think you would figure it out, I should have taken her bet. She doesn't know you like I do."

"Does that mean you have figured out my puzzle?" Adam questioned.

Meg shrugged before standing up, "Have you heard about my big birthday celebration that is in three months?" She waited for Adam's nod. "Good, you better be there. I was hoping to convince your father to let your younger sister, Princess Marin, come for it. How do you think I would convince him? Should I talk about the marriage opportunities, or talk about the great social skills that could be developed?"

Adam laughed, "I would mention both, I am not sure what my father has planned for Marin. Although I hope he is not thinking about marriage yet. She is only 16."

"That sadly isn't too young for some families to be considering marriage," Meg responded in a sad tone. "But, this celebration ought to be fun _and_ keep my councilors busy for a while leaving me not having to worry about the dreaded M word." She started walking out the door as she passed Adam she stopped grabbing hold of his upper right arm to pull him down so she could whisper in his ear, "Be careful of whats-his-face. And I am serious when I say you better be here for that celebration." She let go of his arm and disappeared out the door in a flash, leaving Adam standing there confused.

Meg was smiling as she headed back to her room. She knew she had timed it right distracting the Prince with that last parting shoot, she was able to feel the circlet he had on his arm and she believed it to be the missing main bracelet that she couldn't find anywhere in his room. It would make sense that he would wear the main bracelet, even if it was just to make sure that it didn't get stolen. She was deep in thought by the time she reached her rooms. If the Prince's councilors wanted her to have it as they kept saying this morning when they saw the bracelet on her, it means they were hoping the Prince would be able to control her through the bracelet. Which Prince Adam didn't want to do because he had just given her the bracelet and not put it on her, like he would have needed to. But if the bracelets could indeed cause the two wearers to be able to speak mind-to-mind they could be useful in the long run especially if a war with the Masonites spread to Tigree.

Meg was kept busy the next two days. The treaty had been signed and that took up all of yesterday. And today she spent the day getting picked and stabbed with needles as they finished the last little bits on her dress and also having her hair pulled in every direction as they tried to make it look ornate and beautiful and have it sturdy enough that she wouldn't be able to somehow have it fall down in 5 minutes. Meg was very glad when it was time to go down to the ball just so she could get away from all the demanding servants who wanted her to be perfect. She sighed as she walked carefully down the stairs, so not to trip on her dress. She hated formal occasions like this, she couldn't believe as a child she dreamt of being able to go to a fancy ball and dress up.

As she entered the room she paused and took a look around at everyone who had gathered to greet the Queen as she walked into the room. Meg took a deep breath, drew herself up tall and fixed a beautiful smile on her face. She smiled and gave small nods to all those who greeted her, greeting those who she knew or knew had to have a greeting from the Queen or they would be following her all night long. She heard the orchestra strings tune up getting ready for the first song. She sighed inwardly as she brought up in her mind the dance card that Adriana had filled out for her. She wondered what she had done to make Adriana mad at her this time to fill out such a card. The only pleasant partners on the list were Sir William and sadly enough Prince Adam. She still smiled at her first partner who came up to claim his dance with her. She was whirled out on the floor as her ears where filled with chatter about how well his fife was doing this year and how important his crops were to the kingdom. She made all the proper 'yes, no, and that is wonderful' remarks at the right times and was soon passed off to another boring partner. About halfway through the dances she was getting ready to begin her dance with Sir Lionel, who kept asking her question about Adriana. Smiling at him she asked if he would like to go and trade this dance with Lady Adriana. As he stuttered his answer, Meg lead him over to where Adriana was sitting with Lady Letitia.

"Lady Adriana, Sir Lionel has to be one of the kindest men on this dance floor. He noticed that I have been dancing all night and has offered to sit this dance out so I could have a much needed rest." Meg held out a hand to stop Adriana's comment, "But I can't let him not have a partner for this dance it would be rude. Would you please take my spot and dance with him?" Meg said with pleading eyes. "Don't worry I will sit with Lady Letitia and keep her company. Go, Go before the dance starts." She pushed Adriana toward the dance floor. When they had taken their spots, Meg collapsed onto the chair. "I don't know how many times my toes have been stepped on, or how many times I have to listen to boring people tell me about their lives, but it gets real old after a while." She whispered to Lady Letitia who giggled when she heard that.

"But the way Lady Adriana has been telling me you have been the most graceful dancer on the dance floor." Letitia commented softly.

"She must need her eyes checked then. I am just glad that I got her out on the floor for one dance, and Sir Lionel seems to like her. Also if I played my cards right, Adriana won't be back before the start of the next dance, so I will have to continue to keep you company in her absence and can get out of my dance with Duke Bartholomew. He is a horrible dancer and I would like to spare my feet if I could."

"I would love to save you from that. I also like it when you keep me company. I seldom get to talk to you anymore."

"I'm sorry, I keep meaning to come and visit but this treaty has been taking most of my time." Meg apologized.

"I understand, and it is just as well, I haven't heard anything interesting besides the treaty for the last few weeks. So I don't have anything to pass along to you." Letitia sadly remarked.

"Have you heard about my big celebration party?" Meg asked. "I would like you to come to it, you are a princess if in name only. You should have fun if you came."

"I only heard that you were holding a two-week party. And yes I would love to come, I wonder if other people will think I'm stupid just because I'm" Letitia was interrupted by Prince Adam coming up to them.

"Queen Margaret, I have to congratulate you on how smooth you were able to switch that dance with Lady Adriana." He looked at her and smiled, "Though don't try it with me, I am looking forward to our dance. But you must introduce me to your companion and explain to me why I haven't seen such a beauty on the dance floor."

"Prince Adam, this is Lady Letitia, she hasn't been dancing because she is blind. And you can shut off all that flattery speech it gets really annoying real fast." Meg said curtly.

Adam looked at her in surprise, "I meant what I said about Lady Letitia, although I think if you had the right partner you could dance. After my dance with the Queen I will come get you and see if we could try a waltz or a dance like it."

Meg smiled up at him from her seat, "Why don't you have a seat, Prince Adam. We were talking about my big celebration that is coming. I was just inviting Letitia to it."

"Well, the Queen says that I have to be there, so I would welcome you. I would give me somebody to talk to." Adam said smiling.

"At least you aren't like the people who see that I'm blind and somehow think that makes me stupid or am deaf as well. I get tired of that." Letitia said boldly.

"By the way, Prince."Meg started as she looked out over the dance floor, "Just to warn you. You will be leaving a lot sooner than you think you are." She paused and looked over at him, "I just got word this morning that the Masonites have just attacked your southern border. Your Father is calling you home to help lead the troops. He sent out a messenger yesterday. They will be here tomorrow or the next day at the very latest."

Adam looked at her in surprise and then looked at Letitia as if asking the question why in front of her?

Meg smiled, "Don't worry, Letitia is one of my top agents in this spy game of mine. People seem to forget that she is only blind and not deaf too. They say a lot of things in front of her they shouldn't. She can be trusted."

"How do you know what my father is doing?" Adam questioned.

"It really isn't what your father is doing; I have been trying to keep track of the Masonites, trying to figure out why they have been so silent these last few months. I finally got word that they were heading towards you. And have been keeping an eye out for the order that will call you home." She shrugged and smiled as Duke Bartholomew was headed her way. "Duke Bartholomew," She called as he got closer, "I am sure you will understand, that I am going to have to sit this dance out, I am keeping Lady Letitia company as Lady Adriana is enjoying some dancing at the moment and can't leave her alone. But will you sit down and keep us company?" She motioned to a seat next to her, ignoring the Prince's attempts at keeping a smile from his face.

"Of course, I will." Before he sat down he turned to Prince Adam and bowed, "Prince Adam, I haven't had the chance to officially greet you." He waited for Adam to bow in return before continuing, "Will you be joining our conversation, as well?"

"No, I just came over to meet the Queen's charming companion before I returned to the dancing." He bowed before turning and leaving.

Meg and Letitia sat through a one-sided talk about how well the Duke's wife and kids were doing. Meg was at least grateful he was a good story-teller and gave them some laughs as he described some of the antics of his children. Adriana came back in the middle of that dance and joined in the conversation.

Adam came back and claimed his dance with Meg. As they got ready for the music to start he asked, "Are you sure my father is calling me back?"

Meg nodded, "Yes, It is the logical decision. You need to show that you can lead an army, if you are going to be King one day." They started to weave around the floor as the dance started. "I find it funny that although they could have attacked last week that they waited until our treaty was signed before they attacked. How did they know that it had been signed for one thing?"

"It could have been the ball, it was supposed to mean the end." Adam suggested.

"It is a possibility but we might have been still debating on a few things and still had the ball." Meg paused before asking, "Who is going to stay behind and be the ambassador when you leave?"

Adam looked down at her in surprise before remarking, "I think it will be Duke Wynlyn." He saw her look of mistrust before saying, "Do you think that will be a problem?"

Meg just had time to nod before the dance ended, she then pushed Adam toward Letitia and reminded about his promise to dance with her, before she was claimed by her next dance partner.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Meg was standing looking out the window as her councilors collected themselves into the meeting room. She wished again that she could have had a few more hours of sleep, the ball had ended very late last night and she had stayed up talking with Letitia for a few more hours. Leti had fun dancing with Prince Adam and it seemed she couldn't keep his name from turning up in the conversation. Meg had to roll her eyes as she thought about how much Leti seemed to like him. It also meant that she only had received a few hours of sleep before she was awakened by an _urgent _meeting that couldn't wait until she was more awake. It turned out to be a war meeting. She grimaced as Paul discussed what he had learned from their spies and then had told her Generals before her. He sent a look of apology, which she reluctantly accepted as she thought that it is better for them to know sooner than for her to look all knowing, she just knew though that they were going to make her remember this moment for a while.

They were planning how to split the armies in order to meet the enemy when Meg looked up in defiance and said, "I am going to the front and leading this army."

They all looked at her in surprise before one of her Generals finally remarked, "My Queen, I am afraid that is impossible. You could be hurt or killed and that would not be the best position for the country to be in."

Meg looked steely at him, "One, you better be good enough for me not to get hurt, and Two, I hope you are saying that you hope that I as royalty don't get hurt, and not me as a _girl_. And last but not least, Three, I am the only person with the knowledge of the secret Royal spells. Most of them war spells, like defensive blocks, etc. I am the only choice to go."

"You have not proven that you are capable of doing these spells." General Tanget pointed out.

"I don't deem it necessary to show you that I can do the spells, you will have to take me on my word that I can do them quite well." Meg said while drawing herself up to full height and staring stubbornly into his eyes.

He smiled slightly before commenting, "I believe you, lass but still what if you are killed."

Meg smiled sweetly at him, "I won't be killed, so you don't have to worry about it, but I AM going with the main army." She paused, thinking before making the following comment, "I also have a way that will allow us contact with the Tigree army. But I am the only one who it will work for, so therefore I have to go now."

"Why are you the only one that it will work for?" Simon asked suspicious.

"I really can't say but it just works that way. It is part of a silent deal with the Prince." Meg confidently said.

Simon just sniffed before nodding his head.

"Now what do you say we go and have a break, get some lunch, maybe take a nap. We have been at this all morning and I will tell you I need a nap badly after last night." She smiled as she got up and lead the way to the door.

The sun was rising through the window as Meg looked through it, thinking about this war they were about to enter again. She kept thinking about how the Masonites could afford to attack two countries at once. Also how they were attacking both of them right after they had made a treaty with each other.

She rested her head on the back of the chair, looking blindly outside lost in her thoughts. Something was fishy about this situation. She was thinking that it might be an attempt to break up the Alliance between the two countries and force them to fight between themselves, or at least something like that. She was so tired because she had hardly slept that night, kept up by her never-ending thoughts. She sat staring into space, playing with something in her hands. As the sun continued to rise in the sky, she heard some movement in the room to the right of her. She smiled slightly before calling out, "Prince Adam, As soon as your ready I would like to seek an audience with you." She heard a gasp of surprise and grinned groggily to herself as she continued to look out the window. She heard the door open to her right and turned her head toward it to see the Prince glaring at her.

"How did you get in here? I could have sworn I put alarm spells up on all the entrances."

Meg smiled up at him, "My castle, I know its secrets."

"It's annoying, I hope you know." Adam crossly remarked, "Beg your pardon, but you look really tired. Have you been up all night?"

"Yes and no."

"Why are you so confusing?"

"Because I can be." She started with a smile, "Yes, I am tired, and no, I actually did sleep a little last night."

"Why are you here, Your Highness?" Adam said stiffly as he sat down in the chair across from her.

"Don't be so formal, Adam. I'm far too tired for that. You and your councilors received the message last night that you are now at war with the Masonites, the same as we now are. Why would the Masonites declare war on two countries at the same time? It isn't smart. I can't make sense of it. They are drawing their resources too thin if they do this." Meg put her head in her hands. "It must be a trick. Wage war with the both of us, try and make us hate each other then I am double-teamed., making it a lot easier to defeat me… Sorry, I am rambling. It comes down to this, I suspect that our correspondence is going to get marred or lost, when you leave. We need a reliable way of communication and you have provided a perfect way." She finished and looked straight into his eye and raised her hand holding a golden bracelet with a single green stone.

Adam looked at the bracelet and back into her tired stormy-blue eyes, "You might want to think about that again after you get some sleep. You're not thinking clearly."

Meg narrowed her eyes and evenly said, "I may be tired but I am not dumb or not thinking clearly. I am worried about a possible threat and I have figured out a solution to it and all you have to tell me is to get some sleep?" She quickly stood up. "I misjudged you, Prince Adam. I thought you would have at least listened to me." She shook her head before standing to start towards the door.

"Wait, you just surprised me, you're the last person who I can imagine would want somebody in her head, "Adam quickly said, "Congratulations, by the way, on figuring it out."

Meg sat down again, "Thanks, maybe I am a little too tired for this but it needs to be taken care of. You're right, I don't want you in my head but under the circumstances I can't see any other way. I think your What's-his-face is working for the Masonites, you leave him here and I believe he is going to send messages to your father that I am planning on attacking or betray him somehow. These bracelets of yours provides us a way to prevent misunderstandings like that. You will also be able to tell if I'm lying or not, won't you?"

Adam took a deep breath and responded while fiddling with his hands. "I will, or at least with my sister, Marin." He saw the question in her eyes, "Yes, I have been connected to my sister. When I first received it we thought it would be fun to try it out. To be able to send each other messages without anybody knowing. It gets annoying having somebody in your head all the time. You can develop blocks, but my sister never could. I don't think you will have that problem though." Adam finished quietly.

"Will you do it though? Will you help me keep peace between our two countries?" Meg pressed.

Adam's response was to stand up, take the bracelet from her hands and motion for her to give him one of her hands. Meg held out her right hand and watched as he fastened the bracelet around it. When it was clasped she tried to unclasp it.

"_You know that I am the only one who can put it on or take it off, so why do you try?" _Adam's voice whispered in her head.

She smiled at him,_ "Because I am very curious on how it works. Why does it only work for you?"_

"_Because I am special."_

"_More than you think."_

"_Did you want me to hear that?" _Adam remarked with a sly grin on his face. _"Or were you just trying to be funny?"_

Meg's response was to turn slightly pink around the ears.

Adam explained out loud, "You need to work on what is speech and what is just a thought and put up a barrier around the thoughts if you don't want me to hear them. "


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

An hour later, Meg sneaked out of Adam's sitting room with a splitting headache. She didn't understand how he did it. He could block any attempt at her picking up stray thoughts in his mind and could blast past any attempts of hers to block her mind.

_Because you lack the focus you need…and training."_

"_Don't you ever shut up?" _Meg angrily sent back.

"_No, I am enjoying being two steps ahead of you." _He blithely went on.

"_Did you bug your poor sister this much when she had this cursed thing on?" _Meg asked.

"_No, but you're already past Marin's abilities and you also don't start crying when I do it." _Came the calm reply.

"_Just go away then, concentrate on other things so I don't bother you and let me get some practice and on with my day."_ She angrily spit back.

"_As My Queen commands." _Adam retreated mockingly.

Meg had finally made it back to her room and sat down on the couch closing her eyes. She breathed in deeply, held it and slowly let it out. Letting her mind clear itself as she tried to sort her thoughts and build some walls. She was trying to imagine it like Adam said too, building the barrier walls stone by stone. The problem was it kept collapsing as soon as she thought of something else. She slipped into a light sleep as she tried to think of a solution.

An hour later Meg was awoken by the soft click of the door opening. She looked over at the door to see Paul coming softly in. He muttered quick apologies as he walked swiftly to stand before her. She waved them aside as she beckoned him to sit and tell her what he was her for. "Meg, I am sorry about not giving you the knowledge about the army first."

"It's alright," Meg interrupted, "They needed to know and you saw them before me. It's really alright, they have only reminded me that they knew first a handful of time, and with such glee too. I'm just glad I could be such help to them, to bring such joy into their lives at a time like this." She told him with a grin.

Paul looked at her before smiling, "When you say things like that you remind me of your father. Do you remember your first mission with me, you were about ten and we were trapped in the old castle ruins, in a room with no windows and only one door. Your Father and I took turns attacking our pursuers as they came one by one into the room while you stood In the back of the room goading them on. Oh the memories." He finished with a big smile.

Meg smiled crookedly at him, "I'm just glad we lived to tell about it. So what do you have to tell me?"

"Nothing, Meg, I just wanted to say sorry about yesterday morning."

"It's alright, but I'm glad you came and talked to me though." Meg smiled as Paul got up and left the room. She leaned back in her chair and thought about that old memory. She could still remember that old dusty storeroom like she was in it right now. It actually had been the safest part of the castle because they could control who was coming in and out. Now if only she could do that with her thoughts. She stopped and thought about it. Could she do that to her thoughts? If that room was her head and the only way for thoughts to get in and out were that tiny door in the front, could she get it to work? She closed her eyes and built that room around her, trying to remember every detail of it. Once she had it completed she opened her eyes and looked around for something to divert her attention. Picking up a book she left on the table she tried to read it. Once Meg had read a page she closed her eyes and looked back at her room, part of it had faded and the door had completely disappeared, but it was better than the collapsing walls she had been trying all morning. She concentrated and brought everything back into focus, she was startled from this endeavor as a maid walked quickly into the room passing of the message that her councilors were waiting for her in the council room.

Meg was sitting there rubbing her face in her hands, listening to the people around her squabbling like chickens. When the meeting started she lightly listened to it while concentrating on her stone room in her mind, but now she had a HUGE headache. She looked up with a scowl on her face and looked around at the people who couldn't make a fast decision if their lives depended on it. Adriana looked over at her and immediately went quiet, if Meg had been in a better mood she would have thought it funny. Meg looked around at the other councilors and in a quiet but carrying voice said, "Shut up." She looked around at the astonished faces before continuing, "Why are we arguing about a celebration party that will not happen now that we are off to war? If you feel that it is essential to still have it let us put it off until the coming of Autumn, six months from now. And if we are still at war then we will have it on my 22nd birthday party." She glanced coldly to see if anybody complained, "Now that that is settled let's get talking about this war. I will be at the border with General Tanget and his companies. General Penlt will be training troops and overseeing the other borders and the castle. Is there any problems with this?" She stated not really asking, "Good, We will need to be ready within a week, Please prepare your troops any anything else you may need. You are all dismissed." At that she started to organize the papers in front of her, Meg looked back up and realized that they were all still sitting in front of her, staring at her. She raised her eyebrows at them expectantly, "Are there questions?"

"No, My Queen." General Tanget answered, "You just caught us off-guard, I didn't think you could be so commanding."

Meg sighed as others nodded their agreement, "If you all are going to sit around arguing about trivial items while we need to be preparing for a war, then I will become commanding as you say. So if there are no questions, go and do the job I know you can do." As they all quickly filled out of the room, Meg put her head back into her hands wondering if she had done the right thing.

"_You did come off a bit strong. Although I must admit, they needed it." _Adam's voice came quietly into her head.

"_How much of it did you hear?" _Meg wearily asked.

"_I came in just before you got mad at them. You are learning that sometimes you just need to be tough with them."_

"_Shut up, I just want this war to be done with. It is getting on my nerves already." Meg moaned._

"_I'll tell you what, with both of us fighting them. You from the East and me from the West, we can end this war in six months." Adam said encouragingly._

"_You really think so?" Meg asked._

"_Yep, and I do have to say whatever you have been practicing on, your block is getting much better. Keep it up and I will soon lose my advantage." Adam remarked as he drew away from her mind._

Meg smiled at the compliment.

Two days later Adam and his group left for home. Meg stood above the castle gates and watched them leave, hearing in her head a running dialogue of the argument of what road would be fastest. She smiled and closed the door to her stone room, effectively shutting the argument out of her head. While Adam still could force his way in she was getting better all the time. She turned around and looked at the war preparing activity inside the gate. Her smile faded as she thought of the fact that they will be going to war in less than a week as well.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

"_Adam?"_ Meg called in her mind as she looked out over the road they were about to start on. "_Adam, how have the roads been for you?"_

"_They have been good, besides being a little bumpy but nothing that will slow you down. Are you just leaving?" _He voice came back.

"_Yes, finally I might add. I actually sent General Tanget and all his companies out yesterday, except the one that stayed with me as my escort. We have had several delays." _Meg complained.

"_I know," _Adam said quickly before she could go on. "_You told me most of them yesterday. Waiting for certain information, then waiting for the last company to get in to the castle, and they go on and on. If you don't mind me saying, I don't really care."_

"_If you were really in front of me and you said that I would punch you." _Meg said defiantly. She heard soft laughter coming through their link from that remark. _"How about you? Are you almost to your command site?"_

"_Yes, I am. I will probably be there tomorrow. My father is probably going to be there to see how well I do with command. I am actually a little bit nervous. I mean why should any of these people follow me after so many years of pretending to be an idiot. I wouldn't_." He confessed.

"_Who is the person who everybody follows, no matter what their job is? He doesn't necessarily have to be the top person but he is someone everybody respects." Meg asked quietly._

Adam paused as he thought, Meg could see in her mind's eye flashes of images as he looked around at the people riding around him. _"I think that would be Tren."_

"_Tren? Tren of Point Square? He was one of the councilors that was here, wasn't he? That will make it easier." _Meg interrupted.

"_Yes," Adam said annoyed, "He was. Are you going to explain now what you are talking about?" _

_Meg laughed, "Go talk with him, if I remember right he likes you which will help." _Meg could feel Adam urging her to get to the point, so she quickly continued._ "You need to get this man on your side. Because if he treats you with respect, so will everyone who respects him. Just go up to him and explain that you are nervous that people won't follow you because of all those years you spent as a fool to throw off any people who were after your life. And now you are trying to throw off that image and start becoming the man who will be king one day. Ask for his advice, he will help you the most, not me." _Meg ended with a sad smile on her face.

Adam smiled as he caught the idea of her suggestion_, "I'll go talk to him right now, he is right ahead of me. But shouldn't you take your own advice. You hardly ever ask for advice, and"_

Meg quickly interrupted him_, "I do too ask for advice, just because you aren't always around when I do it doesn't mean that I don't do it." _She snapped.

Adam laughed before continuing_, "Then how did that occurrence in the council room happen last week when you told all your councilors to 'shut up'?"_

"_How about now when I tell you to shut up?"_

"_Now that isn't nice, you don't want to do anything that might make this treaty not work." _Adam answered_._

"_You're assuming I want to make it work." _She shot back_._

"_Well, now you're stuck with me, whether you want it to work or not.." _Adam replied_._

"_I know, having you in my head gets annoying, I will have you know."_

"_I can say the same thing about you, got to go, someone is trying to talk to me." _Adam said quickly before closing the link_._

Meg focused back on the road which she was traveling with everyone else, in her talk with Adam they had actually traveled a good distance from the castle. She looked around at all the people around her and sighed. She hated traveling with such large groups it always made her feel closed in. She looked at those who were in front of her and tried to find someone who she could talk to. Meg found several of the captains and moved her horse ahead to catch up with them so she could talk about different strategies with them.

When they started setting up the camp, Meg was beginning to get tired of all the looks and comments on whether she could use the sword strapped to her back or if it was only for decoration. So just after dinner she had everyone called together to the middle of camp. She jumped up on a log and called for attention, when everything was quiet she began, "Now, I know many of you haven't been around on castle duty since I became the Queen and therefore don't know me as well as I would like. I also know many of you are suspicious about whether I can use this sword on my back. I can't have you suspicious of me or doubting me when I give an order so I am here to set up a tournament. Anybody can join in we will have different matches every night. And the beginning match will be with me. Are there any brave young men out there who think they can beat me?" Meg stopped letting the question hang over the air as all the soldiers looked around seeing if anyone would challenge the Queen.

"I will," Said a clear, strong voice from behind her.

Meg turned around and smiled. "Captain Tev, I would be honored. The rest of you please tell one of the clerks if you want to participate and they will quickly draw up an order. " She turned around and smiled at Captain Tev, "You better not go easy on me," She threatened.

Tev smiled before answering, "I wouldn't dream of it. I have seen you practicing with the guards in the mornings- I fear I may have to ask you to take it easy on me."

That caused Meg to laugh, "I may not be as good as you think I am, Tev but shall we see." And she motioned widely for them to go to where they would be running the tournament.

When they got there she traded her real weapon for a practice sword and started doing quick exercises to limber up. When she noticed that Tev was ready to go she stepped in front of him to start. She looked around the circle to see most of the company's troops eager to see who will win. She smiled mockingly at him and bowed to start the fight.

They started the mock battle with swords clanging, and a blur of wood. Meg knew that she wouldn't be able to match Tev on strength so she concentrated on being fast and unpredictable. Every time it looked like Tev was gaining ground Meg was able to do some fast maneuver to wiggle out of it, but she couldn't seem to catch him off guard. In a final attempt to get him she tried a new move Adam had been telling her about earlier that afternoon, but it backfired and she ended up having a sword pointed at her throat. In defeat she nodded her head, signaling the end of the match. As he dropped his sword point Tev remarked, "You fight really quite well, you need to work on your endurance though. Working fast can burn your energy really fast as well."

Meg tiredly looked at him, "If that was supposed to raise my spirits, you need to work on that, cause it didn't."

"You did what you wanted to do and that is show these men that you can fight and fight well. So don't be discouraged." Tev said encouragingly.

"That doesn't mean I will be any more grateful for all the bruises you have given me tonight, especially when I wake up tomorrow morning." Meg said mournfully. The men that were close enough to hear it laughed and gave her encouraging smiles.

Meg smiled and greeted all the people she passed as she headed for her tent. They all seemed to acknowledge her now that she had proven her skill. As she walked into her tent she heard Adam's voice remark, "_After a full day of riding, why did you submit yourself to that?"_

"_You know why I did it, so why did you really ask?"_

"_Just trying to make conversation."_ He said mildly.

"_When you have something worth saying, come talk to me then, for the mean time, leave me alone…Please."_ She added quickly at the end.

"_Fine, be a social recluse then."_ Adam sniffed before breaking the link.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

As Adam drew closer to the main camp he found himself getting more and more nervous to meet his father. He wondered what his father would think of him now that he wasn't acting like a fool. His conversations with Tren yesterday and this morning were helpful and he was already beginning to meet and gain the officers traveling with him, trust. But his father, King Dmitri was hard to guess what his reaction would be sometimes. They rode into camp and he was greeted by his father, who was standing tall dressed as if he was at home greeting guests. Adam rolled his eyes and thought that only his father would wear such nice clothes out in the wilderness like this. Adam jumped off his horse and came to stand in front of the king and bowed before saying, "It is good to see you again, Father. It has been a long time. How is the rest of the family doing?"

King Dmitri finally smiled slightly, "They are doing very well, all worried about their father and brother coming to fight in a war. I had to stop little Matt from stowing away several times."

Adam smiled at this, he knew his little brother Matt would try not to be left out of such an important thing.

"Come, my son, we have a lot to talk about before we meet with all the generals and hear all of their ideas." The King spoke as he motioned toward a tent. Adam followed, when they entered his father poured them both a drink and sat down in a chair. "So, now that we are alone are you going to tell me about her?"

Adam froze in midair where he had begun to sit down and looked at his father sharply. "Her? Who are you asking about?"

Dmitri burst out laughing, "The only her it could be. The Queen Margaret, of course."

When Adam continued to look at him confused, wondering why out of all things that were before them did his father want to talk about Meg. Seeing this look on his son's face only caused Dmitri to laugh harder. "I want to know about the girl that caused my son to abandon his idiot pose, and caused him to give the other of the Royal Tigree Bracelets too. Tell me about the lady who rules the country we are now allies with." He finished with an expectant look on him face.

Adam finally sat down, looking at his feet trying to collect his thoughts. He finally looked up to find his father patiently waiting for his response. "She is confusing."

"Women usually are." Came the expected response.

"She is very smart, and a little manipulative when she wants to be. But she is honest, and truly wants to do the best she can for her country. She thinks, since the Masonite army is coming after both of us at the same time, that they are going to try and turn us against each other and them swoop in the finish her off then."

Dmitri remarked quietly, "It makes sense in a way, but continue."

"She has agreed to pass on anything that her spies tell her, and also keep us up to date on the movements of the Masonites on their side of the border."

"Then I assume that you have actually put the bracelet on her, so you are in direct contact." Dmitri said bluntly. "How much do you know about the power of the bracelets?"

"Just that it lets two people speak mind-to-mind from far distances." Adam admitted.

"If you have enough control you can actually project an image of her here so others can see and talk with her."

"Really!"

"Yes, Your Mother and I accidently came across it while we were wearing them many years ago." Dmitri stated.

"Mom and you wore the bracelets? I didn't think you had worn them before." Adam stuttered out.

"It is tradition that for an arranged marriage, like Patty and I had, that the groom and the bride wear them from the time the engagement is announced to the wedding day. It is thought that it helps the two get to know each other so it helps the marriage start off better. Although I admit that it almost made me hate your mother, before I got used to her. But back on the subject, while we were wearing them we discovered this trick and it came in handy a couple of times. We had some of the maids convinced that there was a ghost haunting one of the corridors." He smiled broadly at the memory. He looked over at Adam who was staring at him strangely. "Anyway, First warn her that you are about to do this, it is bad when you catch them unawares, just take my advice on that. Second think about having her standing beside you talking. Do it."

Adam closed his eyes and checked to see if Meg could talk and then began to concentrate on what his father had said. From under his eyelids he saw a soft silver light coming from the left of him.

He opened his eyes and saw Meg looking like a ghost beside him, she looked over at him and then at his father and asked in his mind, "_That is your father right? Why did you say you wanted to talk when you are talking with your father?"_

Adam was about to answer her question when his father boomed out, "You will need to talk out loud, my dear. I can't hear you else wise."

Meg shot an accusatory look at Adam before answering out loud, "You can see me then, and can hear me?"

"Yes, I don't know why you have to speak out loud for us to hear it, I never could figure out that part of the spell."

Meg smiled, "It looks a little weird on my end though, Simon is looking at me like I am talking to myself. Excuse me just for a moment, and let me explain it to him and get him out of the tent, so I can make a fool of myself in private." She didn't wait for an answer before she began whispering to someone that they couldn't see. She straightened back up and looked back at them, "So this trick of yours, can I do it so my people can see Adam?" She waited for a yes before continuing. "That's good, now maybe they will stop implying that I am making up stuff and saying that it is coming from him."

The King laughed and looked at her, "I have heard much about you, I wanted to meet you so that is why I had Adam bring you here."

Meg raised an eyebrow, "Hopefully all that you heard is the truth, many people exaggerate my amazing qualities often. I hope you aren't disappointed, Your Highness."

"I don't think I am, anyway I want to hear from you what tactics you will be employing in some of the upcoming battles."

Meg looked carefully at him and looked around for the map, Adam ushered them to come over to the table where it was. She carefully pointed on the map where her troops were positioned and began going through her reasoning for doing this. They talked about different strategies for almost half an hour before King Dmitri straightened up with a groan and smiled, "That is enough for tonight, thank you for the most engaging conversation." He bowed slightly to her before leaving them alone.

Adam looked over at Meg where she was looking over in the direction his father just left. When he realized she was deep in thought he asked, "Well, what do you think?"

Still looking in the same direction she answered, "You look a lot like your father, you know."

"Where did that come from?" Adam demanded.

She finally looked back at him, "Just an observation, you look like your father. Hasn't anyone ever told you that before?"

"Not really, of course I really didn't talk with that many people in court before." Adam admitted.

"You do, I'm always told that I look like my father." Meg commented with a smile.

"And not your mother you should take that as an offense." He joked.

"You have never seen my mother. So you do not know. She has hair that is the color of sun-kissed apricots and eyes that are such a light color of blue they have been called crystal." Meg said mockingly, "It makes one assume that I obviously take after my father with my dark raven hair and stormy-blue eyes." She finished with a bitter smile.

"They must be blind," Adam said trying to lighten the mood, "for you definitely sound like your mother to me."

"Then maybe you are the fool everybody thought you were." Meg laughed as she shook her head. "But anyway back on subject, you need to show me how to do the silver projection thing so I can go show my advisors I'm not crazy."

A couple hours later Adam shook his head to return himself to the present place of his tent. He found himself looking at his father who was sitting in a chair across from him. His father smiled at him and calmly asked, "So I take it Meg picked up on my trick quite fast. How did the meeting with her advisors go?"

Adam grimaced, "Long, they asked so many questions. But I think that they like me if that is saying anything."

"Good, I like that girl, I want you to know. She has a good sense and uses it too. In fact she reminds me of somebody but I can't remember who it is. I will remember though." He said while shaking his fist in the air. "Anyway go to bed my son, tomorrow is coming fast and we have a lot of work to do." He finished with a grin and walked out into the dark.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Leti sat quietly in her chair as she listened to Rina reading out loud her favorite story. She never was tired of hearing it. It also kept her mind off of the fact that Meg had ridden out to the battlefield over two weeks ago and she hadn't heard a word. She herself had put together several reports and sent them out with Paul's messengers to deliver, but there was nothing coming back. She was getting frustrated, she had even tried to sneak into the war council room and listen to what the councilors who were left behind were saying and she had been immediately seen and kicked out. Leti had to admit that she never could get the invisibility spell right.

Leti laid her head back on the chair and closed her eyes. She thought briefly to herself why she had to close her eyes it wasn't as if it actually shut out light or anything. She smiled to herself and shook these thoughts out of her head, and concentrated on the spell Meg had taught her when Meg had learned that she had the gift of magic. Meg used it to spread her senses and tell where the people around her were and where they were going. Leti learned it at first that way, but it never did her any good because it would only give her the locations of living things, which didn't help her much because she couldn't see non-living things. So she had been working on the last several years on adapting the spell to give her everything; the bookcases, rugs, chairs, tables, along with the people. In the last half year she was making significant progress. She could now see in her mind's eye all the large objects when she cast the spell, but small objects still were fuzzy. Why last week while wandering in the middle of the night, trying to perfect the spell, she had tripped on a ripple in the rug in a corridor and fell bruising her knees.

She was just casting her spell over the room when Rina spoke, "My Lady, are you tired?"

"No, Rina I am just thinking about some things. You can go and leave me for a while. I promise I'll stay in this room until you come back." Letitia smiled.

"Yes, My Lady. I will go prepare your lunch for you then." Rina bowed quickly then left.

Leti resumed her spell, she was trying to see small details when she felt somebody come through the secret passageway behind a bookcase. She waited patiently as they closed the door and quickly came up to her.

"A message from the Queen, Lady Letitia." He said politely, he touched a letter on the top of her hand as a motion for her to take it, "I was told you would need to touch the seal on the letter before I was allowed to read it to you."

Leti turned over her hand and took the letter, running her sensitive fingertips over the seal she recognized it as the one that came from Meg's ring that she wore on a necklace around her neck. She nodded her approval as she handed the letter back, and motioned for the boy to read it. She heard crinkles of paper and concentrated to see if she could see the paper in the boys hand.

"_Dear Leti,_

_I am sorry to say that I have missed you but have been very busy or else I would have written sooner. I sometimes catch myself wanting your cool patience when I need it the most. Even though Adam has a lot of patience, I find myself wanting to punch him or strangle the annoying boy instead of being relaxed by it like I am with you. _

_I am concerned about you and the castle, for I'm afraid I haven't heard from either you or Adriana in these last two weeks and while a part of me says that is because everything is going well another part of me worries that something has gone wrong as well. How's that as a gentle reminder to write? I thought it was quite brilliant myself. _

_Here are some of the events that have kept me so busy in the last two weeks. When I got here, I had to inspect everything. Even though I told the Generals several times that I trusted his expertise when it comes to these things, they insisted that I still had to go through and do it. _

_The spell that Adam did is working great it even allows us to be silvery image things for one another so we can talk directly to their advisors. So I have spent a great deal of time stuck in meetings on Adam's side as they fight as well as being stuck on meeting on my side with a silvery Adam at my side. It is very weird, but has come in handy several times. Adam (much to my annoyance) is proving to be a very good strategist when it comes to war situations and how to confront the enemy. He has helped us come up with several attack plans to help us defend our country. He really likes to brag about it too. In return I give him information about what the Masonite army is doing and how it is moving. It has been helpful. _

_You will laugh at this one, sword tournaments are popular for the soldiers in the downtime between fights. It helps keep them limber and gives them something to do. To help them not to treat me as if I am glass and will break if I look at a sword, I have entered many of these tournaments. And I can proudly say that I have not won a single match. I told you that you would laugh at it. While I am an average sword fighter all the people who I seem to fight are very good sword fighters, so I haven't won a single match. But it has proven to the soldiers that I can use a blade and pretty well too. So as long as I only go up against average sword fighters I will be fine. _

_There have been several fights on both my side and Adam's side nothing big yet just some jabs here and there trying to feel out our strength. There is a bigger army approaching and will get here next week so we are preparing for that. Send a prayer up that our luck will be good._

_As I close this letter, I ask you to write a response down and send it back with Douglas._

_Be Careful _

_Meg"_

As the boy ended Leti asked him, "Your Douglas?"

"Yes, My Lady." He replied.

"Please give me two hours to think and get a response ready, Douglas. You can leave the letter on the table and go get yourself some lunch and prepare your supplies for your trip back. I'm sure the Queen told you not to tell anyone about the message you delivered so remember not to tell anyone."

"Yes, My Lady," he replied again and quickly left the room.

Leti picked up from the table the letter and quickly ran her fingers over it. There on it were the little bumps that were the code Meg had thought up for Leti. Since Leti couldn't read Meg had thought up of the idea to press bumps in a certain way so when Leti ran her fingers over it she would recognize the pattern to it and could de-code the pattern. She quickly read the letter worried about what it could say.

"_I am worried about the fact that I haven't seen a letter from you. I know that you would write even if there was nothing to report so that means that someone is intercepting the letters. I think it is Whats-his-face but I have no proof. So send me a letter back with Douglas and then write me another letter and send it the normal way and see if you can somehow trace it. You will probably need to enlist Adriana in on this as well since I haven't received any mail from her either. _

_As I said in my other letter things are going well here we haven't had too much of a scuffle and are preparing for something bigger._

_Please write soon. _

_Meg"_

Leti slowly let the letter drop to her lap as she thought about the contents of the letter. She felt slightly jealous that she couldn't be out there helping them. She sighed as she got up and walked slowly over to the desk, using the spell to watch carefully for anything she might run into. She fumbled in the desk looking for paper and her little tool that let her make the bumps in the paper. When she found those she got started writing.

"_I have sent two messages already through the normal means. I was beginning to worry that I had not heard anything back from you so the messages are being stopped both ways. I haven't come across anything too suspicious. What's-his-face has been acting weird but nothing really out of the ordinary. I haven't heard anything about the war either, I can't seem to get any information there. I am sorry that I can't be of more help but everybody has shut me out. _

_Sorry,_

_Leti."_

When Douglas returned after the two hours, Leti had him write a normal almost boring letter on top of her message and sealed it up and sent him on his way. She sat down and worried over how she was going to try and get to the bottom of the gone astray messages. She didn't think Adriana would listen to her but she had to take a chance. So she stood up and went in search of Adriana.

* * *

Author's note- A different view than the normal one I usually write but I thought that it would be an interesting way to get the point across. Tell me what you think.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Meg groaned to herself as she threw her reports on the table and leaned back. She was getting spoiled with this constant communication with Adam, she kept wishing she could do the same thing with her messengers. Last week she wrote a letter to Leti who was in the castle, it took three days to get to the castle and then three days to get back. And when she finally got it, it didn't have anything useful in it. She knew she couldn't blame Leti, old What's-his-face was being careful and it would be difficult to pin anything on him. She was beginning to wonder if she had made a mistake of being so suspicious of him. She rubbed her face with her hands and forced herself to take some deep breathes, getting herself back on track. What she needed to do first is figure out why the messages to the castle were not getting there, and if someone was tampering with the messages that were going out to the different companies along the battle front.

She sighed it was going to take double messages and a lot of invisibility spells. She pushed herself up from her chair and went to go find Sir William who was in charge of anything magic in this war.

She walked into the room where Sir William usually worked and found him hunched over a map. She came over next to him and looked down at the map. He looked over at her and then back down at the map before starting to talk, "I am currently trying to set up a way for us to communicate easier." Seeing her puzzled expression he went on, "I know you're having problems with the delay in the messages, so I have been working on this for several days, and I think I may have it so it works." He picked up a small stick of wood and muttered a few quiet words to it. Then he put the tip of it to the map and started to draw. Meg fascinated watched the simmering lines of a tree appear on the map. He motioned for her to go look at the other table, as she approached it she saw the same tree appearing on the same map. She grinned as she came closer to it.

She was examining the map when she heard Sir William start to explain, "It all depends on what words you speak, a couple of words will allow you to mark the map, another will erase, and then one will completely erase the map for good. I have only made two maps so far but as soon as I do a couple more experiments on them to make sure everything works. I will make more for all the generals."

Meg looked up at him in wonder, "How did you know that I needed something like this? I haven't been that obvious, have I?"

He chuckled, "No, not really. But I know you well, I know something was bothering you about the speed of the messages and that something needed to be done about it. So I started working on this. Oh I also have been having some of my assistants putting together invisibility charms I had a feeling you would be needing a lot very soon."

Meg laughed too, "I came in here to ask you about what we can do for that situation and here you have already solved it. You're two steps ahead of me this time."

"Oh and by the way before you ask I will make enough for Adam's side as well."

Meg laughed even harder, "Thank you, I am glad I have you on my side."

Reassured about that problem Meg went back to her office and began to go through the reports again. She was looking through each of the generals descriptions on how the fights they had already had, went and what the Masonites did. She was trying to see a pattern, a strategy, anything that might help her bring this war to an end. She had only been in it for about a month and she was already sick of it.

"_Meg? Can you come over here for a couple of minutes?" _Adam's voice quietly called.

"_Sure, I have some information to tell you as well." _Meg called back.

She quietly appeared by Adam's side, looking around a table full of generals, _"_What can I do for you, gentlemen?" she asked.

"Meg, can we have your information first?" Adam asked.

She quickly looked over at him before responding, "Yes, I have good news and bad, which do you want first?"

"The good." Someone, Meg couldn't identify who, said quickly.

"Alright then, Sir William is just about finished developing a map that when you mark it, what was marked will show up on the maps of others who have a map like it. He told me earlier that it needed a couple more tests and then he will start making some more. I think it takes a while to make though so we won't have it immediately."

"That will be very helpful when it comes to placement of troops and the enemy." Tev remarked quietly.

"It will be a great help," Meg started, "especially since it kind-of solves the bad news." She sighed before continuing, "I think we have a leak in the messaging system. Messages I have been sending to my castle have not been received for the last two weeks. I am currently trying to figure out how wide spread this might be, if it is just the messages to the castle or if it is affecting other messages. So I don't know if you are having this problem. What do you think?"

"It is nice of you to tell us now," Adam accused, "Why didn't you tell us sooner?"

"I wasn't sure of how wide spread it is. It might not even affect you." Meg protested.

"It has. And if we knew about it sooner we could have saved some time today." Adam stated.

"Are you going to explain what you are talking about? Or am I going to have to guess." Meg said trying to keep her anger creeping into her tone.

"We received a message today that your army was planning on attacking us near the border three days from now."

"And you believed it." Meg spat.

"We didn't know what to think. I couldn't imagine why you would attack us but it wouldn't surprise me either." Adam heatedly spoke.

Meg gasped, "WHAT! You really think that I would attack you, you're my allies in this, I wouldn't dream of attacking you. I can't believe you think I would even think it."

"Well if you wouldn't keep secrets from me,"

"I haven't been keeping secrets from you, I have been trying to figure this out, I …"

She was interrupted by one of the generals coming in-between them and pushing them apart. Or at least pushing Adam away and having his hand go right through her shoulder as if she were a ghost. "Calm down you two. Nobody is accusing anybody of anything. We came to the conclusion that this message must be a trap so we divert over forces to block an army that will never come."

Meg took a deep breath and slowly rotated her neck around. "I'm sorry, I haven't gotten much sleep and am edger because of it. I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions like that." She said quietly looking down at the floor. Adam could see in her closed fist and the tension in her shoulders that she was still pretty angry but decided not to press the point.

"I'm sorry too, I guess I kind-of baited you with my comments." Adam said slowly. Meg looked up at him and nodded. She turned back to the generals and asked, "I am not sure how to root out the problem. Do any you have ideas?"

After an hour of debuting back and forth they decided that the double message idea would be the best way. It would take a while but it was still the best way. Back in her camp she sent out messengers to round up her generals. She needed to pass the idea through them, and who knows maybe one of them would have a better idea.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Unfortunately Meg's generals couldn't think of a better plan so they were starting to send out all the messages. Fortunately for Meg, one of Paul's men, Sam, was doing all the writing and organizing. That left Meg free to think about her conversation with Adam she had earlier about the message that she was going to attack them. She was feeling guilty about losing her temper and yelling at him, she should have trusted him a bit more and at least heard him out. She sighed and put her head down on her desk, she should apologize but she didn't really want to tell him that she was wrong. Adam was probably going to laugh at her and tell her that she never apologized.

She knew that she needed to contact Adam and find out who had delivered the message that start tracing it to see where it came from but she just couldn't bring herself to face him. Meg wondered again if he was mad at her for losing her temper. Leaning back and taking a deep breath she called out to him, "_Adam, can I talk to you? Or are you busy right now?" _Her voice whispered not sure why she was suddenly nervous.

"_Whatever I'm doing can wait, I need a break from it, so what's your question?" _Adam inquired.

"_um… well first off I wanted… I wanted to apologize to you yesterday for losing my temper." _Meg stuttered.

She could feel Adam's surprise as he collected himself for his answer, "_I'm sorry too, Meg."_

"_Why are you sorry?" _She questioned.

"_You weren't the only one to lose their temper, as I recall I did it too." _He chuckled.

_Meg blushed slightly and shook off her relief that he didn't laugh at her. _"_Anyway, I wanted to ask you about the message. Who was the messenger who brought it? I am going to try and trace the message back to whoever wrote it… that is if I can."_

"_I already have people on that very task." _Adam replied_, "Hopefully they will find something out. Although I don't believe it came from the castle. So your theory about what's-his-face may be wrong."_

"_I know I have already come to that conclusion. What I am worried about now is that if I was wrong it means that I am watching the wrong person and I need to find that person fast before they cause more trouble."_

"_What do you want to do next, then?" _He asked.

"_I have begun the whole message check system, and should be receiving answers as soon as tomorrow. So I will be able to start trying to find the problem there soon. All I hope that it isn't very big. As soon as Sir William finishes those maps, my next concern is with getting the maps out to the right people. While those maps are going to be nice, the ingredients and time it takes to make them is a problem. We are only going to be able to make ten of them. So can you make do with five?"_

"_I'll have too, it should be alright though. I will be able to make sure the important generals have one, and that will help a great deal." _Was the calm answer. "_How have the attacks been on your side?"_

"_I haven't been in many; mostly I am the person with the big picture, telling everyone else what to do. We have several on the eastern side by the border, I don't know if they are trying to come in-between us or if they have something else in mind. You?"_

"_I have been leaving the big picture up to Tren, so I have been in more fights. What surprises me is that we haven't been using much magic in this war, us or them. I am actually worried about it, I wonder what they are cooking up."_

"_I try not to think about that, too many others require my attention." _She yawned_, "By the way, I think we will have a tactical meeting later this afternoon and they want you to be there."_

"_If I can I'll be there. YOU need to get some sleep, how much sleep did you get last night?" Adam accused._

"_A couple of hours, what I normally get. Don't worry about me, I'm fine." _She yawned again.

"_Get some sleep or I will take action and I guarantee you that you won't like it." _Adam stated.

"_I will, I will. I'll talk to you later." _Meg said with a wave of her hand as she closed the link.

Meg blinked rapidly bringing herself back to her room, she looked at the desk and all the papers that awaited her attention. Growling in disgust she pushed herself away from the desk and stood up. She had promised General Tanget that she would come out and see the camps and meet some of the troops. She currently needed to get outside and walk around so she smiled as she thought that she could do both at the same time.

"How is everything going out here, today," Meg asked as she walked up to General Tanget.

"We are behind schedule, I wanted to build a type of trench in-between this camp and the enemy but it is taking forever to dig it." He said frustrated, "We also have scouts who are reporting activity from the enemy coming our way."

"How important is the trench?"

"It would help a lot. But we will have to deal with what we have."

Meg looked out at the thin lines marking where digging of the trench had taken place, "Do you have any magic users who know any Earth spells?"

"Earth spells?" Tanget questioned, "I don't believe so, I think most of them are healers and the others know spells that can be used for war. I'll send somebody to ask." He snapped his fingers causing a young messenger to come running. Giving him the message he sent the boy off. "Are you going to tell me why you asked?"

Meg chuckled, "I thought you would know what I was thinking. Magic could dig your trenches a lot faster than shovels will. I can do a spell that will work for it but it takes a lot of energy and it would be better if I did it with other mages."

"If you don't mind me asking, I didn't think you had the power to do elemental spells." Tanget asked.

"I didn't until I became Queen and was given it by that stupid scepter. And if you don't tell anybody else, I have had a hard time getting a handle on them. If Adam, or General Penlt had been given these powers they could have given them more power then I can. I hate to admit it, but I really don't have the ability with war spells. Shadow, and secret spells are my specialty." She finished with a grin. "But I can handle digging trenches, so as soon as your messenger comes back we can get started and get you your trench."

Tanget smiled and nodded his head, "I would appreciate that."

They stood talking about how Tanget wanted the trench to be deep enough that he could bury spears of sharpened wood as a defense to keep the Masonites back. Meg liked this idea of fortification and was anxious to get started with the digging. Finally the young messenger boy came back with a middle aged man following him.

"My Queen, General Tanget, My name is Corian. I am here because you requested someone who could work Earth Spells." He said formally with a bow.

Meg smiled brilliantly at him as she motioned him to follow him, "Corian, we are going to work some spells and build the General a long trench." She pointed out the long, thin lines before them, "That is where his soldiers have started with shovels but it is taking them way too long. So I thought we could use a little magic to speed it up. Can you help me?"

Corian looked at her with surprise, "I didn't think you can do those types of spells, My Queen."

She smiled crookedly at him, "I am a Queen with many talents, Can you help me?"

He smiled shakily at her, "Yes, I take it I will be the supporter in this spell."

They spent the next hour talking about how they were going to do the spell and started setting up for it. Meg enjoyed this magical discussion. She could tell that he was a very good mage and could learn a lot from him. She made a mental note to go to the Mages area more often and talk to them more. At the end of the hour she found herself at one end of the trench line and Corian on the other. She started chanting and doing the hand movements for the spell, squinting in the sun trying to stay together with Corian. When the chant was finished they both jumped in the air and as they landed drove their right fist into the ground. When their fist made contact with the dirt, Meg felt an explosion of dirt and air come from in front of her. She stayed there crouched as the dust in the air cleared, trying to catch her breath. She could feel her hands shaking underneath the weight she was putting on them. She looked up at she heard the sound of running coming toward her. She looked up to see Corian and Tanget looking down at her concerned.

Corian fumbled at his waist as he brought out his water bottle and handed it to her. She smiled her thanks before she drank.

"This isn't just water, Corian." She hoarsely said when she was finished.

"No, My Queen, it is infused with herbs to help bring back strength." Corian said quickly.

She handed back the water bottle and motioned that she wanted to get up. As Tanget helped her up he asked, "Why are you so weak and Corian is not?"

"I am not weak," she snapped, "I'm just a little out of breath right now. As for your question, we split the spell up evenly but I'm not as accustomed to earth spells as Corian is and it used up more of my energy, that's all. In an hour or two I will be back to normal. So don't worry." She nodded to the two gentlemen before heading back to her office.

She was walking back when she heard Adam ask, "_Why did I feel you do some kind of spell a few moments ago?"_

"_I was helping Tanget build up some fortifications by using an earth spell to dig a long trench." She quickly replied._

"_I thought that you avoided those spells because you can't do them very easily." Adam asked._

"_I do, but this trench will help a lot and I could do something to help." Meg defended herself. She felt Adam silently probe her before answering, "It didn't do you any good though, you feel very tired to me, I don't know how you are walking so steady."_

_That caused Meg to laugh, "Because I am amazing, now if you excuse me I am back to my office and I am going to get some sleep like you have instructed me too." She then quickly closed the link before he could reply to that comment._

She walked into her office, where she curled up on the couch by the wall and quickly fell asleep.

She was woken up a couple of hours later by the knob of the door clicking as somebody opened it. She groggily sat up and waited to see who it was. Tanget walked in and smiled, "Did you enjoy your nap?"

She made a face and replied, "Yes, how are your stake things coming along in the trench?"

"Well, we stopped because we think that some Masonites might becoming nearer as I said when I talked to you earlier. But it is now time for our meeting and we need you and Adam there if you can."

Meg stretched as she stood up, "I am not a cripple, that spell just drained me of a little energy, and the nap took care of that, so don't worry. Come on, I believe you said we had a meeting to get to." She said as she ushered him out the door.

After the meeting she was talking with Tev about how his company was doing, when out of the corner of her eye she saw Adam and Tanget talking with each other. They looked worried making her wonder what they were talking about. She politely excused herself to Tev and wandered over to them to see. As she approached Adam turned to her and stated, "We were just talking about the earth spell you did today, and the fact of how tired it made you." Meg looked up at his silvery face trying to gauge any emotions there but he had said it calmly enough.

"Yes, I did perform an earth spell but I didn't make me really tired." She countered.

"That's not the way Tanget says it."

Meg shot a glare at Tanget, who was smiling fiercely, before commenting, "I'm fine. The spell made me a little tired, I took a nap after it. You wanted me to get some more sleep…" She stopped there Adam's smile was making her more nervous than she would be if he was mad at her.

"True, I did want you to get more sleep, but not because you just used up all your energy on a magical spell. So it doesn't count." He finished with a larger smile. Meg was now really worried, he was up to something and she knew she wasn't going to like it. After that he nodded at Tanget, who nodded back and smiled. She looked back and forth from either one, trying to figure out what they were up too. Adam then smiled back at her and in a flash of silver disappeared.

* * *

Author's note- hehe what are Adam and Tanget up to? Will Meg figure it out before it is too late?

I have to admit that I enjoyed writing this chapter, the next chapter is going to be fun as well, hehe please review.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Meg was pacing in her room, she was furious. She was currently not allowed to go out of her room. There were soldiers outside with orders from Tanget not to let her out until it was 9 o'clock, and they wouldn't pay any attention to her orders. There was even a grumpy little old lady in her room to keep her from slipping out the secret passage ways. She knew it had something to do with Tanget and Adam. This is what Adam must have been hinting at yesterday. She was going to wring his neck the next time she saw him. He must have put Tanget up to this last night when they were talking. Meg glared at the door again reminded that there were soldiers on the other side of it.

"Please, My Queen, lie back down and get some more rest. My orders are to help you relax and not have you spend the morning pacing." Whined the little old lady.

"The best way for me to relax now that I am up and ready for the day is to let me do my work." Meg lashed back.

"Please sit down and try to relax, My Queen." She tried again.

Meg just rolled her eyes at her and went out to look out the window..

All day long Meg was followed by the little old grumpy lady who she christened, Annoying. Annoying followed her to breakfast and wouldn't let anyone talk to her while she ate. Annoying stopped a meeting with Sir William about how they were going to distribute the newly made maps, so she could eat lunch. And then sat down next to her and wouldn't let her leave until she had eaten everything in front of her.

After lunch Meg then walked around the whole fortress looking for Tanget while Annoying followed her and buzzed complaints how she shouldn't be walking around like that. But Meg couldn't find Tanget no matter where she looked. She had a feeling that he was avoiding her. She didn't even try and talk to Adam keeping her mind barrier firmly in place so he couldn't try either.

During dinner when Annoying wouldn't let Meg talk to anyone until she ate all her vegetables. Meg stood up crashing her tray against the table, her eyes storming. "Leave me alone, if you aren't out of my sight in five seconds I will have to do something that I will regret." She said through clenched teeth.

Annoying took one look at her and then was out the door. Meg watched her leave before storming outside to try and walk off some of her anger. She felt Adam try and talk to her before she shut him out completely.

Meg was sitting in a large tree overlooking the camp when Tanget finally appeared at the base of the tree. "I heard from one of the sentries that you were up there." He called.

"I suggest that you go away and try again when I have actually calmed down." She called back.

"Are you really that mad at us?"

"Yep."

"You left us no choice, you kept driving yourself too hard. The men were getting worried about you. That spell you did yesterday left you grey in the face. They appreciate what you do, the fact that you are out here in the thick of it, helping and managing things. What would happen if you get sick or something? We just want you to be careful and for you to take care of yourself." Tanget explained.

Meg just laughed at that comment, "If you're that concerned why not just tell me so?" She asked, "and why did you involve Adam in on this? If you just came and told me I would have understood."

"Would you? Would you have really understood? Or would you have brushed off our concerns like you usually do? We are worried, please be careful."

Meg jumped down from her branch and looked over at Tanget, she shrugged her shoulders and said, "All I can say is I will try, but if you ever do that again…" She left the threat there before turning and heading back up to camp. When she got back in her office, Sam was sitting there waiting for her. She asked him to report his findings as she sat down.

"The first of our double messages are in, there is no communication problem with most of the camps to the west of us. We still need to hear back from Iseling's camp, we should hear back tomorrow from him. To the east of us is where we run into trouble. Three of the four camps messages were messed with. I am currently having all those messengers followed with a new message to see if we can pinpoint where the leak is."

Meg stared at her desk thinking about the results of the test. She was brought back to reality when Sam shuffled his feet and coughed. "Forgive me Sam, I was lost in thought. The findings are not as bad as I feared but not as good as I was hoping they would be. Please continue your investigation and report back as soon as you have found anything out." She nodded to him and turned to look at the map on her wall. She was trying to figure out why the eastern side had been picked. Adam and his forces were to the east, that could be a reason to try and disrupt communication, but so could a lot of other reasons. She could hear in her head Adam trying to talk to her but she blocked him out again. She didn't feel like talking to him.

Meg looked around the room at all of Adam's councilors before saying, "Now that you have received your maps, I hope that you will be able to hand them out with all speed. Please remember your maps are calibrated with ours. What we put on them you will see and vice-versa. Also remember that you can't let these maps out of your sight, if one of the Masonites gets even a look at one of these maps it could be the end of us all. Are there any questions?"

As Meg began answering questions, Tren leaned over to Adam and asked, "Is she still mad at you for that whole watch trick you played on her?" Adam smiled crookedly before nodding. Tren chuckled before answering, "It's been almost a week since you did it. You know you're going to have to make up with her sooner or later. I suggest sooner, because in war we can't afford to have you two at odds for long."

Adam shook his head as he answered, "I know that but she really isn't talking to me at the moment. It is really hard to apologize when she won't talk to me. And every time I try to bring it up she just shuts her mind off, it makes me wish that we were together in person because then I could at least yell my apology at her as she walked off."

"Let me talk to her," Tren started as he stood up, "I'll try and convince her that she needs to at least listen to what you have to say before acting like you don't exist."

"Good Luck."

Adam watched Tren as he walked up to the silvery projection of Meg and started talking to her. He could tell when Tren was trying to convince her that she needed to talk to him when she finally looked over at him. Meg smiled slightly and sighed before coming over to him. He mustered a smile and asked her, "Do you forgive me for my little prank?"

"Are you sorry that you did it?"

"I have regretted not being able to talk to you these last few days." Adam said regretfully.

"Why did you do it?" She asked.

Adam grinned scampishly, "Because I knew it would annoy you."

Meg let out an exasperated sigh as she looked at him before allowing a small smile come to her face, "You know, that answer is much more believable than people being worried for me."

Adam laughed, "People do worry about you, you know. Don't think that it is such an impossible thing."

Meg scoffed and Adam continued, "So…Do you forgive me?"

Meg shrugged and offhandedly said, "For now."

"Great, I'll take it. Now before when you were briefing everyone on the maps you said that you're going to be going to Iseling's camp for a routine inspection. Why now?"

"We never heard back from the double messages that we sent out. Well we received the normal one back but not the secret one. I think he was intercepted, so I am going to go check it out." Meg admitted.

Adam nodded while thinking over her answer, "But why are you going? You might be walking into trouble."

"I am going to go deliver the map to him, I don't trust it with anybody else. Also I do need to go and personally check on how everything is going for Iseling. I have been to all the other camps except his."

"Alright that makes sense but be careful."

"I will be Adam, you don't have to worry."

"Have you figured out where you are having your message problem?" Adam asked.

"Sam has identified several messengers that are changing the messages, we are now following them to see if we can figure out who they are taking orders from, so we're close." She nodded quickly at him before disappearing and returning to her own mind.

Meg was in the inn at Dusaluf confirming that her messenger had made it this far when Adam sent a message to her, _"We have just received a message from one of your spies that the Masonites are coming down the border in between us, have you heard anything?"_

"_No, but then again I am traveling and would be a little out of the loop. Have you checked the map?... has any of my camps over there made any markings suggesting that the Masonites are coming that way?"_

"_No, they haven't. That was the first thing that I did when I received the message. What do you think is going on?"_ Adam sounded nervous.

"_Did you send anybody out to confirm it?"_

"_Yes, they should be back later on tonight."_

"_Write a message on the map to Kena, he is the commander of the camp that is closest to you. If anybody sent that message it would have been him. Then get back in touch with me. I am a day away from Iseling's camp so I don't really want to come back." _Meg responded.

"_Okay, then I'll be in touch." _Adam said before going.

Meg sat there wondering why they would be attacking in-between the two countries, it would only prove to be deadly for them because both armies would attack and they would be trapped from both sides. Could it be a distraction? Maybe they were preparing to attack on the other side, which is where she was going. Meg sighed she really hated this way of deception, because you never had enough information until it was too late.

"_Meg? I have talked to Kena, he says he never sent a message, nor has he seen any approaching army. He is sending out scouts to double check but I think we have a smoke screen on our hands."_

"_I was thinking of that possibility too. I was wondering if they were trying to divert forces away from where they are truly planning on attacking. I am going to ride through the night and get to Iseling as soon as I can, I suggest you send a warning to the camp farthest away from you." _Meg said quickly as she began to gather up her packs.

"_Good plan, I'll let you know if I find anything out."_ Adam said as he began writing messages on the map.

Meg was glad to see the fortress coming into view as dawn approached. She was having a hard time staying awake. When she finally made it into the castle she demanded to speak to Iseling at once. She filled him in on the events of the last week as they walked to his office. When she asked for an accounting of the areas around she found out that there was a Masonite army sitting just a few miles from them.

"Why didn't you send us a message that they were here?" Meg demanded.

"I did, My Queen, last week." Iseling responded.

"Great…Let me fill you in about the map system I brought you and about the messages that keep going astray."


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Meg was woken up by a loud thundering on the door. She sat up and blearily tried to focus on the door as someone came in. "I am sorry, My Queen." A maid quietly said as she ducked a quick bow. "But the General is calling for you- the Masonites are advancing forward."

Meg slid out of bed as she rubbed her eyes trying to wake up faster. She quickly changed into her clothes and was soon walking out the door.

She walked into the room rubbing her eyes trying to appear more awake than she was. Meg stopped just inside and looked around at all who was present; they all had very grim faces on. She blinked several times and strode to the table and asked for an update as she sat down. As they filled her in she looked down at the map with all the positions of the armies on it. When they stopped talking she looked up confused, "We have greater numbers than them and know the terrain better… what is with the feeling of impending doom in the air?" She asked as they all looked down.

General Iseling answered, "They have finally pulled out their mages, they are using a type of water spell to almost freeze all our fighters while they can move around freely. We haven't been able to figure out how to counter it yet."

Meg looked down at the map and bit the inside of her cheek as she took in the information and tried to think of a plan to get out of it. "Have you been able to capture one of their mages?"

"Yes, but he was a normal mage- not powerful enough to do such a spell."

Meg closed her eyes and tried to think how the Masonites were doing this. "Was there any type of amulet on the mage… a pendant, a ring… anything?"

"There was a silver circlet on his head, that's how we knew he was a mage." One of the junior captains said.

"I want to see it, please bring it to this room and send for all your mages that are available." Meg commanded. He jumped up and briskly walked out of the room. Meg looked at those that were remaining. "Until we can counteract this, we have to play a game of Cat and Mouse. We need to stay out of their range of that spell and then attack when they aren't expecting it and see if we can take out those mages. I'll stay here and help out the mages figure out the spell, you all will need to be with the troops trying to keep up the moral and keep them alive." She waited for their nods before dismissing them.

Meg paced the room until the circlet and the mages appeared. She only spent enough time with introductions to figure out names and who were the elemental mages. She then spent the next three hours dissecting the freeze spell on the circlet. When General Iseling came in a little after that for a progress report, They were eating a small lunch and discussing ways to counteract the freezing spell.

"What is your progress?" Iseling demanded.

Meg looked up at him from her seat and motioned that he sit down. She pushed her empty plate away from her as she started. "The circlet contains a freezing spell put there by a water mage. The water mage made it spell that could be activated by anybody who has a magical ability. It is quite genius how they put it together, this is why we haven't been seeing mage activity from them, they have been preparing for this attack. We have been throwing ideas around how to combat this spell. And the best way is to copy their idea. We make an amulet that any mage can use but this one will have a fire spell to combat the freezing spell. While the two spells and therefore the mages are fighting, somebody needs to kill the other mage causing the freezing spell to go inactive. Sadly enough to say, it might take awhile to develop our amulet. Maybe a day or two." Meg finished with an apologetic look in her eyes.

Iseling growled his frustration, "I know you are working as fast as you can. Things are not going well for us out there, we are losing a lot of ground and having a hard time staying out of the way of that stupid spell. Please hurry." He finished with a bow and walked out of the room.

Meg turned to all of the people in the room, "You heard him back to work. Concentrate on how we can make this spell work for us." She then turned to her own work.

Time passed by too quickly for Meg to be able to account for it all. She went from working on an idea, trying it out, having it fail in some way or another, to trying again and again and again. She was standing up trying to work some kinks from her back and neck when she finally looked out the window and saw that it was completely dark outside. She called out, "What time is it?"

"It is sometime past midnight, My Queen." One of the mages wearily said.

Meg looked around and saw many of her mages asleep at their tables, or laying on one of the many benches sleeping as well. She did some quick calculations in her head and figured they had been at this for close to ten hours. "I don't know about you but I think I am going to take a nap and try to get some energy back. Hopefully I will think better and have more magic when I wake up. I suggest you do the same." Meg advised as she claimed one of the free benches.

Meg woke up when a beam of sunlight hit her face. She opened her eyes slowly as she looked to the window seeing that the sun was just beginning to rise. She sat up with a groan, her magic usage from yesterday was beginning to catch up with her, but she pushed it from her mind as she looked about the room and was pleased to see most of the mages up and working again. She grabbed a roll and a cup a juice from a nearby table and began to walk about the room seeing what progress had been made during her nap. She had just finished her breakfast when she saw one of her fire mages motioning for her to come to her.

"I think I am onto something, but I can't get it to be strong enough to counter the freezing spell." Aixa quickly stumbled out as Meg came closer. "I am hoping you could give me any ideas on how to work with it."

Meg quietly listened as Aixa went through her notes and showed her the result of the test she had done. Meg called the room to order gave them all Aixa's notes and told them to work on making it stronger. After another exhausting six hours of riding the rollercoaster of working, then not working spells. They finally got one amulet to work. Meg sent out two mages to test it against the real thing. They each had either the fire amulet or the freeze circlet. The final test was successful, and Meg cheered with the rest of the mages before sending them back to start the production of making them for the army to use.

Meg was finally heading back towards her room. She had no clue of what time it was all she knew was that the sun had set a couple of hours ago and that if she didn't get into a bed soon she would collapse. Her magic was all gone, used on making amulet after amulet. She knew she was going to be sleeping through most of tomorrow and hoped everything goes well for General Iseling's troops. She finally sunk into her bed; her last thought before closing her eyes is what Adam would say to her when he found out that she had drained herself this much.

"_Meg!"_

Meg heard her name being called in the distance but she was so tired that she just turned over and went back to sleep.

"_MEG!"_

There was her name being called again, she felt so heavy…

"_M E G ! ! ! GET UP NOW! I need you!" _came that annoying voice again. It sounded like Adam but why would he be trying to wake her up for, he was the one that told her that she needed to get more sleep.

She tried to snuggle back in her blankets again, when louder than ever came Adam's voice again.

"_MEG! Come on, I know you need sleep but I need your help. I just arrived in Sunanc and they are being attacked with that same freezing spell that you have encountered. I need you to be here and tell my mages how to make the fire amulet so we can fight back." _Adam pleaded with her.

If Meg hadn't been so tired she would have been amazed at his pleading. But she didn't think about it, she rolled herself out of bed, causing herself to land on her knees and elbows. She sat like that for a few moments trying to fight not going back to sleep, getting up only when Adam came and pushed her again.

She stood up and tried to find her balance, she found herself in a room with Adam and several people looking at her. Adam had a very concerned look on his face as he stepped forward in an attempt to balance her, forgetting that she wasn't really there.

"Here we go again." Meg said as gained her balance and smiled tiredly at Adam.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Adam walked back in to the workroom several hours later to see how their progress is going. He looked around seeing all the mages working quickly and confidently. He also saw the silvery form of Meg curled up sleeping. He smiled broadly as he focused on her sleeping form, he was still smiling when his top mage, Brannen, walked up to him.

"How is everything going with the fighting?" Brannen asked.

"It is still pretty dicey out there, but we are gaining more and more ground as we receive more of you fire amulets." Adam said without taking his eyes off of Meg.

Brannen smiled, "That's good, although we are going to have to stop making them for a while. I fear everyone is getting tapped out of magic and isn't going to be much use for a while."

When he was silent for a few moments Adam finally looked over and him and nodded, "I understand, Make as many as you can, then get some rest. We will use what we have and be fine." He sighed as he looked back over at Meg, "I wish the only thing I had on my mind right now is annoying her until she is rested and back to full strength. But back to the war I go." He said as her silvery form faded from view and he turned to go back to the battles.

Meg woke up from her curled position on the couch, wincing as her cramped muscles protested the movement. She wondered why Adam hadn't woken her up and let her go to sleep on the bed. She stretched as she stumbled to her feet. Meg tried to shake off her sleepiness as she walked into her rooms to get ready. When she had washed up and dressed herself, she came out into the outer rooms to find both Iseling and breakfast waiting for her.

"I am glad to see you here, Iseling." Meg greeted him with a smile, "Now I don't have to try to find you to get a report on how the fighting is going."

"I knew you would want that as soon as you woke up so I had a servant waiting outside your rooms to fetch me when you woke up." Iseling reported.

"So how is everything going?"

"Everything is going well, those amulets that you mages cooked up worked very well, we were able to either capture or kill over 15 of their mages. Other areas that were attacked with the same spell, we have sent mages and amulets over to them. But even though everything is going well now, we did lose many good soldiers." Iseling said.

"But not as many as we could have, we could have lost a great deal more." Meg reflected.

"True, the main post has been asking about when you're coming back. I think they are missing you." Iseling teased.

Meg rolled her eyes, "haha, Tell them I'll be back in a day or so."

"Then I will leave you to the rest of your breakfast." Iseling said before standing up and bowing to her before leaving.

Meg was just finishing up her cup of hot chocolate when Sam came rushing into the room. She looked at him startled, "Sam! What are you doing here? You're supposed to be chasing messages trying to figure out who's behind it."

"T-That's why I'm here, M-My Queen." Sam gasped out. "I have found out who it is and you are going to have a hard time believing me."

Meg looked at his face realizing that her nightmare had come true on this, it was someone who she trusted. "Who is it?" Meg whispered.

"You're chief in secrets,…Paul."

Meg barely heard the mug in her hand crash on the floor, as she numbly sat down.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Meg looked numbly down at the broken mug trying to get a grip on what she had just been told. She looked back up into Sam's eyes and said, "You realize that I have to do some truth spells on you to make sure you are telling the truth."

Sam, not breaking eye contact, just nodded his head.

Meg looked away as she thought about her options, she looked back and regained eye contact. "You probably have guessed which one I am going to do." She waited for his nod before continuing, "I'll try to be as gentle as I can." Meg hated do this spell, the reader, but sometimes there was no way around it. This spell allowed you enter someone's mind and read it essentially. But if the subject was unwilling usually all it accomplished was to destroy their mind, killing them and leaving you without your information. So Meg only did it on willing people, which you usually don't want to know everything on your friends mind. The spell was also two way, so Sam would see some of her thoughts.

She took a deep breath and put her hands up to Sam's face. She closed her eyes and began to say the words to activate the spell. As the spell took hold her mind began to be flooded with images and information from his mind. Her experience with Adam and his bracelet allowed her to be able to sort through the information much quicker and more efficiently than the last time she did this spell.

An hour later Meg finally stood up and shook her arms and shoulders trying to get them to loosen up. She felt very weak, she knew she shouldn't have done that spell when she was recovering from making all those amulets. She turned to Sam who was still sitting, recovering from the spell. Meg suggested that he go lie down, get some rest and they would meet in the afternoon to discuss what they would do next about Paul and other messengers. As he went out the door, Meg decided to take her own advice and headed back into her bedroom for a nap herself.

Over the next week she was always moving and doing something, much to Adam's annoyance. He kept telling her to slow down and she kept ignoring him. She was now back in the main camp and getting ready for a meeting with the commander of that camp, General Tanget, and the two commanders of the camps east and west of her. She was also waiting for Paul to arrive. He had sent a message that he was bringing some very important news that she needed to know about.

When he arrived that afternoon, Meg listened to him tell her about how he had received information that the Masonites were retreating at the moment from Myrr and were going to focus an attack on Tigree. Meg listened with concern and told him she was already planning a meeting this evening to coordinate some troop movements and they could talk about this there.

That evening as Meg waited for everybody to come into the war room to talk about her next course of action, she found herself a little nervous. She had talked over her plan with Sam, Adam and Tanget but she didn't know how the others would take it especially Paul. The commanders and their seconds for the camps to the east and west walked in, General Sider, and General Kena, followed by Tanget, and his seconds in command. The last were Sam and Paul with some of their staff. When everybody was seated she called to Adam and had him appear.

Paul was the first to speak and tell about his finding of how the Masonites were going to try and attack the Tigree's full force so they were backing off of them. This caused everybody to argue about what they were going to do. Should they send some of their forces to help the Tigree's or should they keep their defenses up? Meg watched silently waiting for the right moment to speak her plan.

"I have made up my mind," Meg said loudly getting everybody's attention. "We are going to break our formations. The West camp is going to Tigree to help out Adam, and the East camp is going to go help General Iseling clean up and maintain his lines. General Tanget and his company will stay here and keep this defense stable."

"You don't have to send people over to help me, Meg." Adam answered.

"If the Masonites are going to be concentrating on you, then yes I do." Meg said calmly.

"You are sounding like I can't defend my own people. My armies can do just as well as yours can. I don't need your help." Adam protested.

"Yes, you do Adam." Meg said more forcefully, "If Paul says that they are going to attack you and leave me alone. Then that is what they are going to do. I don't need my armies at the moment but you do."

Adam looked at her angrily, "I am not a child that you have to care of, look out for your own country before butting your head into my business."

"Look who's talking, _Prince Adam, _you have been butting your big head into my business since we meet." Meg retorted. "I am not just looking out for your little country, I'm looking out for mine, because if yours falls to the Masonites then I'll will be attacked from another side."

"So you don't care about our peace talks and having a good relationship with Tigree, you're just looking out for you." Adam spat back.

"Don't try and tell me that you joined this treaty only to become friends with me because I know you did it so you could have more security on one of your borders."

"Don't worry about me, Meg, because I am not worrying about you." Adam stated.

"Fine, be that way, You can leave now." Meg simply said as she cut off their link and Adam's form disappeared.

Meg looked back over to the table where everybody sat dumbfounded about the argument that had just taken place. She shrugged her shoulders and went back to explaining the plan. General Sider would taken his company and go help Iseling while General Kena would go and help strengthen the border in case Tigree doesn't hold up against the Masonites. She went over everyone's assignment not giving them much of a chance to add or detract from the plan. She then excused everybody but the three Generals. Paul and Sam got up with confused looks on their faces not quite sure why they were being dismissed. Meg saw their looks and simply told them that they needed to go and organize all of their people to watch for the Masonite movements and make sure the Masonites didn't get word of what they were doing.

When they left, Meg did a quick sweep of the room to make sure that nobody was listening, before sitting down and looking at the faces of her Generals. Tanget was smiling while the other two weren't sure what was happening. She smiled back at Tanget and then at the other two. "I know what just went on is very confusing. I usually don't take that much control in a meeting but I had to. I have a plan that will require your ability to keep secrets and following the plan." Seeing their confusion she added, "We are going to set a trap for the Masonites."

* * *

Author's note- hopefully this chapter was better than the last chapter, it is much longer I have to say. Please read and review, and I also wonder if you can guess the trap. I'm so excited.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

"We are going to set a trap for the Masonites." Meg confidently said. "We have a spy in our mists who is going to be reporting this move to the Masonite prince, and I am confident that they will attack this fortress because of this information. So Sider and Kena you are going to act as if you are following my orders that I just gave you. You are going to start heading in the directions of those orders, on the second day you are going to start heading back secretly. As you head back you are going to circle around and come from behind the Masonites, thereby encircling them. Any questions?" Meg asked as she beamed at them.

"How are we going to trick them if there is a spy in the camp?" Sider asked.

"That all relies on your ability to keep a secret." Meg pointed out, "You are going to tell your troops about the order to go either to the border or to Iseling. As you leave this fortress and go, you are going to mark your position on the magic map. On the second day you will capture the spies in your company, I will give you their names, tell your troops about the secret orders and start heading back, still marking the map as if you were still going to your original destination."

"There are a lot of things that could go wrong with this plan, if anybody were to find out we could be in a lot of trouble." Kena stated.

"I know, that is why you will not tell anybody or discuss it with anybody even us until two days are over. I am counting on you and your silence." She stopped and looked at the three men, "Are there any other questions?"

"Just one, was that fight with Adam real or just part of your plan?" Tanget asked.

Meg gave him a glare and stated, "I don't want his name mentioned at the moment, you are all dismissed."

The next day the two armies were off to their two destinations. Meg was seeing off General Kena and his force with Paul. She leaned over to Paul and commented, "I am surprised that you didn't protest when I came up with this plan. Your information must be very correct."

He looked over at her surprised, "I have been working with you for several years, I know when to argue with you and when not to. It also helps when I have information that supports your decision."

Meg nodded and said, "Thank you for believing in my plan then. I hope Adam will be alright I don't want Tigree to fall because of one argument."

"Tigree will be fine, just keep looking out for your armies like you are doing." Paul said comfortingly.

Meg nodded again and turned to go back to her rooms for breakfast. When she got there she called up Adam.

"_How are you doing over there?" _

"_Fine, how about you? Did people actually believe that fight?" _Adam asked.

Meg laughed_, "Yes, they did. Some of them are even worried that we might call off the treaty. I am just hoping that this works because we are in big trouble if it doesn't."_

"_It has to work." _Adam murmured_._

"_I know, I just hope I haven't forgotten something too big." _Meg whispered as she went back out of her rooms to go about her activities for the day.

The next couple of days Meg was very busy. First she was pretending to be staying in the fortress doing some evaluations, then when the Masonite army was spotted and seen to be coming for them, she was preparing the armies the best she could without letting them know about the trap. Finally they came close enough to start the battle.

Meg and Tanget stood on the fortress wall watching, through a spy glass, the Masonites setting up their border.

"They have come in pretty close to us." Tanget noticed.

"I know, They must be very confident that we don't have the forces to go meet them." Meg replied.

"Even with Kena and Sider out of range we have enough forces to send out troops to meet them. They must have something up their sleeve." Tanget commented.

"That worries me." Meg admitted.

"General Tanget, I was told you were up here." Came a voice behind them. Meg turned around and saw Corian standing there.

"Corian, It is good to see you. I have meaning to drop by and talk to you after we did that earth spell together but something keeps coming up." Meg smiled as she held out her hand.

Corian took her hand and smiled back, "I understand, My Queen. We all have been kept busy."

"I'm sorry if I was distracting you, did you come up here to speak to Tanget?" Meg apologized.

"Yes, thank you for reminding me." He turned to Tanget, "I came up here to ask if you had the mages assignments ready yet."

Before Tanget could reply a soldier came up and said, "I'm sorry to interrupt, sir, but the Masonites are starting to do something to the far right, you need to see this."

All three of them hurried over across the fortress to the edge and Tanget picked up the spy scope. He looked through it and shook his head as he handed the scope to Meg. "I don't know what they are doing, do you?"

Meg looked through it and saw a bunch of grey robed people constructing two small towers. She scowled and handed the scope over to Corian, asking if this looked familiar to him.

When he looked through the scope his face turned white. "This does look familiar to me," he whispered, "I can't believe they got enough mages willing enough to do it."

"I was afraid you were going to say that." Meg cursed.

Tanget looked at her and asked, "What is it?"

Meg let out a sigh, "It is a dark magic spell, if they get those towers finished, it will allow them to cast a spell over this whole area."

"What kind of spell?" Tanget demanded when she stopped.

She looked at him her eyes haunted, "Anybody that the spell touches dies, the mages who cast it, even their side will also have causalities. There is no defense for this spell, we have to take them down before they finish."

Corian spoke up, "I am surprised they found enough mages to do the spell, you have to have 20 willing mages to do this spell. They have to be willing, no coercion involved. It is a suicide spell, how did they find the mages?"

Tanget took the scope and looked at them again, "It looks like they will be finished within the hour, and with the amount of soldiers around them I don't think we can get to them in time." He slowly brought down the spy scope and looked over at Meg and Corian. Corian was looking lost and Meg had her eyes narrowed in thought.

"What are you thinking, Meg?" He asked.

She brought her head up and told him, "I'll take care of the mages, but you need to get troops out there and take advantage of the surprise that this will be, can you do that?"

Tanget slowly nodded and asked, "What are you going to do?"

Meg just said, "Send out the orders." Before looking out over to where the mages were and raising her hands, palm up, out to the side of her. She began chanting something that Tanget couldn't identify, but he heard Corian gasp as gusts of wind began to spiral around her.

Tanget looked over at Corian and asked, "What is she doing?"

Corian replied, "She is doing a Royal Spell. It is called the Twin Wind Dragons. It is the most powerful long range attack in the royal spell arsenal."

"Twin Wind Dragons?" Tanget repeated, "Most powerful attack? What kind of effect will this have on her?" He asked.

Corian shook his head, "There is no way of telling, but if I had to guess based on what that earth spell did to her, this one will most likely drain her magic completely, knocking her unconscious for at least a few hours."

Tanget winced, "Adam is going to kill her… or me for letting her do that. Can you take care of her while I follow her orders?"

Corian nodded and asked, "Who's Adam?"

"Tigree's prince, he is a little overprotective of her. Take good care of her." Tanget said before walking away.

Corian focused his attention on the girl with a wind funnel on each hand, he listened to the roaring wind whisking her words away as soon as she spoke them. As her voice began to get louder and louder and wind funnel began to get longer and wider. She began to shout the ending of the chant and the funnels jumped into the air and rose, twinning themselves around each other, and began heading toward the Masonite line. By the time Corian had taken a few breathes the spinning twin funnels crashed into the line, scattering soldiers, mages and destroying the partially built towers. After several very long moments the tunnels began to shrink and slowly disappear. Corian then felt the gate open and saw a long line of horses come barreling out of the fortress toward the Masonites ruined line.

His attention was turned back when he heard Meg fall onto the hard stone, unconscious.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Meg slowly felt herself begin to wake up, she tried to fight it for a moment not wanting to open her eyes. Then she remembered what had happened just before everything went black. She woke up with a start, forcing herself to sit up almost before her eyes were even open. She looked around in a panic and found herself on a couch in the council room just inside the wall she did the spell on. She shook her head in an attempt to clear it and heard Adam say, "_You're awake. I was wondering when you would wake up."_

_She smiled slightly and asked, "How long have I been out?"_

"_Over four hours." Adam replied._

_She cursed a little bit, "I didn't think I would be out for that long, anyway, please give it to me now so I can get it over with and move on."_

"_Give what to you now?" He asked._

"_My lecture on how I am not supposed to do spells like that and not take care of myself." Meg said._

_Adam plainly replied, "I don't have one."_

"_Now I am really confused, I have been out for over four hours but I am not going to get the usual take better care of yourself lecture. How did I manage that?" Meg asked confused.._

"_As much as I hate admitting this, you didn't have a choice this time. It was either do that or get killed by the Death spell. And I would have made the same decision you did. But if you don't take care of yourself after this battle, then with a healthy conscious I will give you that lecture, so beware."_ Adam explained.

Meg smiled and said, "_Thank you for understanding."_

Before Adam could give a response, Corian came into the room with a tray, "The servant watching you said you were awake and talking to somebody, who were you talking to?"

She smiled up at him and said, "Adam." Then seeing his confused face, she called Adam over, gesturing to his silver form she introduced, "Corian, this is Prince Adam from Tigree, Adam, this is the head mage over here, Corian."

Corian smiled and replied, "I knew you had some magical contact with the Tigree, I didn't know it was like this though."

Adam smiled, "It is definitely different, although I don't think Meg likes doing anything like it is supposed to be done."

Meg just shook her head at him and made Adam disappear and looked back at Corian, "Hand me whatever is in that cup and fill me in on what had happened over the last few hours."

Corian handed her the cup and proceeded to tell her that General Tangent and his troops have pushed the Masonite line back quite a ways and have set up a solid perimeter for the night. He was bringing his captains back so they could figure out a strategy for tomorrow.

Meg nodded and stood up and headed for the door.

"Where are you going?" Corian asked concerned, "You shouldn't be going anywhere right now."

"I am not going far I am just going to look over the wall myself." Meg called back as she walked out the door and out onto the wall. She looked around and went over and looked over the side where she saw the aftermath of the recent battle. Meg turned to the soldier who was on the wall as a guard and asked for his spy scope. He came to attention and handed it to her with a bow. She made a face at the bow and put the scope to her eye. She could see Tanget on his horse talking to one of the many captains. After looking for another long moment Meg handed the soldier back his scope, "Thank you." She told him.

"You're welcome, My Queen." He said with another bow before turning back to his post.

Meg made a face, she thought she had made it clear that when they were out here, at war, that she didn't want to hear "My Queen" and have all that bowing. Not wanting to deal with it, she turned to walk back to the couch she had woken up on to take another nap before Tanget returned.

She was woken up by Tanget's voice coming in through the doorway, he was speaking to someone outside about sending up some food for everybody. She slowly sat up and looked up at him as he walked into the room. She gave him a tired look, and commented, "You look as tired as I feel, and I have been the one sleeping for the last few hours."

He laughed, "I wish we could call it a day but tomorrow is going to get dicey, I have had men help Sam put Paul in confinement and all the captains are on their way up here to talk about it. Are you up to it?"

Meg chuckled back, "Of course I am, don't think you are going to keep me away. And my healer says it is alright for me to join this little party." As she said that Adam's silvery form joined them.

Tangent shook his head, "I knew that fight of yours was just for show," he looked over at Adam, "Is she really alright?"

Adam nodded, "She will be fine."

"I am right here, just in case you forgot, gentlemen." Meg protested.

They both just laughed and moved over to the table, and Tangent began to catch Adam up on what happened during the day. Muttering to herself about men with no manners, she stood up and moved over to them so she could get the information too.

As they talked both food and people began to arrive. When everyone had arrived, Meg motioned to Tanget to start the strategy meeting. Before Tanget could start though, Simon burst into the room and looked around wildly, muttering to himself, "Where is she? I have to hurry."

Meg watched him as he made eye contact with her and said "There you are! I have been looking all over for you. You need to come with me now." He ran over to her and began to pull her by the arm out of her seat.

Meg stood up and jerked her arm out of his hands and demanded, "What is going on Simon? What are you doing?"

Simon just looked at her and said, "I need to get you out of here, it is too dangerous for you here."

"Simon," She interrupted, "I am not leaving here, I am here until the end."

"But I heard that you had collapsed and I cannot allow you to put yourself in anymore danger, in this little game of yours." Simon complained.

Meg just started at him for a long moment before answering, "Simon, this is not a game. And I am in no more danger than any other soldier here that is fighting for our country. The reason I collapsed was because I performed a spell that was needed to save lives,"

She didn't get any farther before Simon interrupted her again, "You shouldn't have performed that spell, you should be back at the castle, far away from any danger."

Meg didn't let him get any farther before she interrupted him, "Simon! Get a hold of yourself! I did that spell to save the lives of the people fighting for this country, I don't care that I was unconscious for a few hours, it was worth it. And I would do it again in a heartbeat, so don't you stand there and tell me that I should be holed up when I can do something here. If you have a problem with it, then leave, because right now we need to concentrate on surviving tomorrow and you are preventing us from doing that." She gave him a death glare until he slowly nodded and then turned and left the room.

She turned around and was surprised to see everybody staring at her even Adam."What?" She asked, "I know I was a little rough on him, but the faster we plan this, the longer nap we get until the morning hits. Which is very important. So let's start."

Everyone was nervous about the plan for the morning, because everything relied on Kena and Sider getting back in time and to the right spot.

Two hours before dawn, Meg met Tangent on top of the wall, "Are you ready for today?" She asked him.

"No," he shook his head, "are you?"

"Not really, but here it comes. Between the troops I will have, yours, Kena and Sider we should completely surround the Masonite army, let's hope it happens quickly and surrender comes quickly so we can spare as many lives as possible."

Tangent looked over at her thoughtfully for a moment before asking, "Did you mean what you said yesterday, about doing that spell again if you had to?"

Meg looked at him surprised, "I thought the answer is obvious, Yes, I would. I would do it as many times as I could if it meant saving the people who fight for me."

Tangent smiled and nodded, "I thought so."

Meg looked at him confused but decided to drop it as it was time to go down and get by the troops.

She left Tanget and went down to the 5th company. And from there she would be in charge of the 3rd, 4th and 5th companies to the east while Tanget was to the west with the 1st, 2nd, and 6th companies. She rode up and greeted Captain Davis, the captain in charge of the 5th.

"Hello Captain, are the troops ready?" She asked.

"Yes, My Queen. We are just waiting for the signal." He replied.

As they took their place Meg heard Adam say, _"Please be careful, I would be very sad if I had to train someone else how to use these bracelets."_

_Meg choked a laugh and silently replied, "You're not getting rid of me that easily, so you don't have to worry about it."_

She closed the link as she looked around at all the soldiers around her, she hoped with all her heart that this plan of hers worked and that they could end this war today. The signal from Tanget went out and the time for thinking was over.

The day was a blur for her, between reorganizing troops, trying to keep as many alive as she could, and even doing a fair amount of fighting herself, she couldn't remember much. She remembered calling out a rallying cry when Sider and Kena joined the fight, She remembered doing several spells along the way, and just as the sun began to sink down, Meg remembered hearing the surrender call from the Masonites being sounded. She watched as the Masonite troops shrank back, and stood watch for a while afterward.

Captain Davis stayed with her the whole entire day, a feat that surprised her. He again reminded her, "We need to get you to a healer's tent and have someone look at your leg."

She looked at him blankly and vaguely remembered receiving the wound earlier in the day. She nodded and they slowly rode their tired horses to a grove of trees that they had passed earlier that had been set up as a healer's station. Though try as he might, Captain Davis couldn't keep her from stopping and picking up a soldier that was badly injured and let him ride her horse while she guided the horse to the grove, he even picked up one himself and followed her. Upon arriving the soldiers was quickly taken off the horses and carried into a tent and left Meg standing there to take in the busy healers rushing around everywhere in an attempt to keep up with everybody. A healer rushing by her glanced in her direction and then came to complete stop and came to attention. She tried to silently signal to him to get on with his work but his abrupt stop had not gone unnoticed. Before she could breathe again the whole camp and come to a stop and was bowing at her.

She quickly shook her head and said loudly, "Go about you work, and act as if I'm not here. There are people who need your attention more than I do." She then looked expectedly at everybody until they finally went back to their tasks. Captain Davis came up besides her and said, "We need to find you a healer."

Meg shook her head, "Just clean it and wrap it up again. These healers are very busy with those who are gravely wounded. My wound can wait." She then limped over to a tent and went inside.

A few hours later, Meg commented to her companion, "I am glad that the moon is full tonight. It helps with seeing."

Captain Davis looked over at her and commented, "We really need to get you back to the command post, I am sure they are worried about you."

Meg chuckled, "I am sure they are, but right now I am helping search for wounded that need to be brought to the Healer's tents. They don't need me at command."

She was just picking up an unconscious soldier when 3 dark figures on horses came riding up. She looked over and squinted in the dark trying to see their faces. "Tanget? What are you doing here?"

He sighed, "I am looking for you. The battle has been over for hours but nobody knows where you were. I have been looking for you."

Meg made a face and answered, "I am sorry, I have been out here helping where I could. It didn't cross my mind that I would be missed."

She was interrupted by Captain Davis, "And you completely ignored me when I told you the same thing that he just did."

Meg sent him an innocent smile and shrugged, "Am I needed for something, Tanget?"

Tanget answered, "You are needed at the command post, we have a very special guest that keeps demanding that he see you."

Meg looked up at him confused, "Who?"

"You haven't heard about what caused the surrender horn to be blown, I take it then."

Meg shook her head and answered, "I haven't been paying attention. But before we go any further, Let's get this soldier I am currently trying to hold up somewhere warm and then I can go with you where you need me to go."

Tanget's two companions jumped off of their horses and took the soldier from her, she limped back to her horse, where Tanget sharply asked, "Why are you limping?"

"Because I hurt my leg." She replied matter-of-factly.

"Has a healer taken a look at that?"

She nodded, "It isn't serious, the healers can't afford to waste energy fixing something that isn't life threatening."

"Did they say that or did you?" Tanget asked.

Meg laughed, "Both of us said that, because believe me your Captain Davis has been taking good care of me. It took both the healer and me to convince him that I was okay to be walking."

Tanget replied, "Good, Come on now, mount up and come back with me, we need to get back."

Meg made a face and commented, "My horse has been working all day, and I don't think I should be riding it all the way back. We should walk back."

Tanget scoffed, "I am not letting you limp back. I will walk your horse and you will ride mine." He dismounted and looked sharply at her, "Even if you are not concerned about your leg or the image you would get limping around, I do. I am not asking, Get on the horse." He firmly stated.

Meg looked up at him and seeing the glint in his eyes decided it wasn't worth the fight. She sighed and held up her hands in defeat, "I give this fight to you, but only because I am tired."

Tanget grinned as he helped her on his horse. In her mind she heard Adam say, "_Good choice." _Her response was to wearily block him out again, although she knew that with how tired she was it wouldn't last long.

"While we are riding back, catch me up on all the news I have been missing."She said to him.

"Well we caught Prince Malcom. And forced him to call his troops back. He has been yelling to see you ever since we caught him several hours ago."

Meg chuckled, "I hope that he is hoarse by now, that way I don't have to listen to his yelling."

It was Tanget's turn to chuckle, "So that was your reason for not appearing right away, it is making sense to me now."

They had made their way to another camp that was just outside the fortress, when everybody saw who was on the horse they all stopped and bowed. Meg sighed and muttered, "I have been trying to get everyone to stop doing that, they didn't do it near as much a week ago. What has gotten into them?"

She nodded and tried to make Tanget's horse go faster but he was holding onto the reins wouldn't let her. She glared at him which he ignored as he nodded to the soldiers they passed. Meg gritted her teeth and started nodding to them as well.

She breathed a sigh of relief when they finally passed them only to go into another camp when they passed through the gates, where it happened again, she thought momentarily in her tired mind to yell at them to make them stop but she stopped herself before that could happen. They stabled their horses and she awkwardly limped past the guards outside who bowed as well.

She opened her mouth to talk ask Tanget why he didn't allow her to speed up out there but he spoke before she did, "They needed to see you," He grinned at her when she looked at him surprised, "yes, I have been around you enough that I can predict a little of what you are going to say. Those soldiers back there, they respect you and they needed to see you so that is why we didn't speed up."

Meg just stuck her tongue at him and remarked, "You are not as smart as you think you are." And she walked past him into the council room where others were waiting for them.

She sat down and looked around the room and was surprised to see Kena, Sider, and many of the junior captains there. She looked questionably at Tanget, "I thought all you needed me for was to calm down the annoying prince, where are all you here?"

Tanget looked guilty around the room and said, "We have some other things that we need to plan and discuss with you."

Meg felt Adam plow through her barriers and appear before everyone, "What needs to be done? Is it something I could do? And we can allow The Queen to get freshened up a bit before talking to the Prince?"

Immediately they all nodded and liked his idea, Meg shrugged her shoulders and looked down at herself before remarking, "I am sorry that I didn't meet your levels of cleanliness but I have been a little busy." They all laughed at her weak joke and she decided that she needed to get out of there, "If Adam can handle it then I am going to go get cleaned up, just make sure to take good notes so you can tell me what happened." She then walked out of the room and ducked behind the door and listened for a moment.

"…doesn't do anything by half, does she?" she heard somebody say.

"No, she doesn't. She is serious about protecting this country." Tanget said before continuing, "Now, Adam what we wanted was an opinion on how to keep the Masonites from attacking to get their Prince back. It looks like they are reforming their forces to attack again."

She heard Adam reply, "Where are they gathering?" Weariness claimed her and knowing that Adam could and would handle it, she went down to her rooms where she found a hot tub of water waiting for her. She numbly wondered how news traveled so fast among the servants as she hopped in and felt herself relax in the hot water.

She pulled herself out of the tub long after the water had gone cold, dressed herself and sat on her bed to comb her long black hair.

Several hours later when they heard that she hadn't appeared in front of Prince Malcom, Tanget and Adam went over to her rooms and not hearing any movement went inside. They both paused when they saw her curled up on her bed, sleeping, her hair brush still in her hand. Adam smiled and shook his head, before saying, "She finally got to sleep, let's keep her that way." He motioned for Tanget to follow him out.

When they were back in the hallway. Tanget looked over at Adam and asked, "Is it alright for you to be over with us for as long as you have been? It has been several hours."

Adam grimaced, "My father is taking care of everything on this end. So I doubt that I have been missed while I have been stuck in my little room while I have been helping you." He paused for a long moment before continuing, "I must confess though, I feel more a part of things when I am here, than I do when I am with my own group. I haven't quite figured out why though."

Tanget smiled at him and answered, "I am thankful that you are here, you are a valuable help with both planning strategy and in keeping our Queen from doing too many crazy things. I wouldn't have had near the success that you have with her."

Smiling at him, Adam answered, "Thanks, Tanget. I try. Speaking of which, I should return and fill in my father on what has happened. Will you see how long you can keep her asleep?"

"I will." Can Tanget's simple reply.


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

Meg sat in the council room of the fortress at the head chair, with her arms crossed and her eyes closed, she was thinking about the meeting that was going to be taking place in just a few short hours. It was the meeting that would decide whether there would be peace between Myrr and Mason or if the war would continue. She was hoping that the Regent King would be a diplomatic fellow, unlike his Nephew the Prince Malcom. Malcom was not in any way a diplomat. Over the last past two weeks he had complained constantly, over just about everything, his food, his room, his bed, his guards, her choice to hold him as a hostage, the list never seemed to end.

In fact in the interactions that she had had with Malcom she had determined that he was a very selfish, mean, and conniving man. She had thoughts to kill him while she had the chance before he took complete control over his country and led it to war with her again. But she knew that wasn't an option, he needed to be returned back whole and untouched. "Curses," she breathed as she opened her eyes. She needed to get going and get ready for the meeting, she hated getting all dressed up just to say hello to some important person.

As she was getting ready she kept going over in her head what she thought would happen. It ranged from being in a yelling match to somewhat being civil. She had in her mind that it was going to be a shouting match near the end. She kept wondering what was going to happen. By the time she was all ready, the delegates had arrived and were waiting for her in the council room. She took a deep breath and entered the room. She walked in with a smile on her face and greeted all those who were there.

"How are you doing today, Regent King Tobis?" She went up to him and shook his hand.

He smiled back and replied, "I had a good ride here, but I wish I could have met you under better circumstances."

"That is true, shall we get started? I am hoping that we can help make this a happier situation for both us." Meg responded.

"Let's get started then." He said with a wave of his hand to come and sit down.

By the end of the hour Meg had decided that she really liked Tobis. She was wondering where in the world that Malcom had come from, and actually asked, "Why is Prince Malcom so intent on attacking us?"

Tobis sighed, "It is a complicated story, his father, my brother, Porter, was a lot like him. "When Porter died and I was made Regent over the young prince I was hoping to be able to turn him around, but I wasn't. He officially becomes King in a year and he was using this war as a chance to prove himself to the counselors hoping that they would support him becoming king earlier. Which many of them did, so they supported him in starting this war but now that he has used up so many resources foolishly taking on both your country and Tigree, many of the counselors are ready to rethink him being as a king. I am currently trying to get them to think about passing the kingship to his younger brother, Armen. "

Meg just looked blankly at him, before saying, "Do you mean that Malcom may not become the next king?"

"Yes, it is going to take something quite large for him to get back on the councils good side. So even though we are agreeing to an alliance right now, keep your eyes peeled for some attempt by Malcom to take over your country as a good bribe for the council." Tobis said solemnly.

Meg smiled and quickly relayed the information to Adam who had been semi-listening in. He couldn't believe his ears either. They were both glad for even a short lived peace treaty.

That historic week ended with a peace treaty and with Prince Malcom out of her hair and in some one else's hands. She was so happy until she got the message that in three months time her council was planning a large two week celebration celebrating her belated birthday and peace treaty. They sent her a message that as soon as she felt everything was in order on the front that she needed to get back to the castle to help prepare for the event. She smiled as she threw the message down on the desk. They had used the wrong words in that message. She didn't feel like anything was ready for her to leave yet. She stayed for another week before Tanget threw her out and told her to get back to the council. She then started across the border with her few guards to see how Adam was handling everything and to make sure he and his sister Marin received invites to the party.

Meg knew what Adam's response would be if she told him too soon so she didn't tell him that she was coming to visit his main camp until she had already crossed the border and was two days away from the camp. When her party finally rode into camp, Tren and Adam were there waiting for them with many of the soldiers as well. Adam had his arms crossed and was glowering at her. She smiled innocently and dismounted coming up to them. "How are you doing today, Tren? I haven't seen you in a while. It is good to see you again."

Tren held out his hand and replied as she shook it, "It is good to see you again. I am glad you came it allows me to thank you in person for that gutsy plan that ended this war."

Meg laughed, "Thanks but it almost didn't work so it was almost little too gutsy."

Tren smiled as he bowed and walked away leaving her with Adam. She turned and smiled at him, but he just glared at her. "Come on, Adam." Meg pleaded, "At least act like you are enjoying having me here."

Adam rolled his eyes and remarked, "You shouldn't be here, both of us know that. So why are you?" He turned and motioned her to follow him. Something was bothering him about her, there was something wrong.

"I'm here to see my good friend, and see how his country handled the war." She said confidently.

"I don't believe you, you are probably trying to miss something or get out of something." He said plainly as he motioned her into the command tent. As she walked by him he tried to figure out what was bothering him so much about her.

"Okay, Okay, you got me. I am avoiding all the preparation work for the stupid celebration that I got myself into. I don't want to be trying on dresses and deciding what color the tablecloths need to be." She grudgingly said as she took off her sword from her belt so she could collapse on one of the chairs.

It finally clicked what was bugging him so much, "Why are you wearing your sword on your belt? You always wear it on your back." He demanded.

She did a slight shrug, "I felt like it."

He reached out his hand quickly and grabbed her arm before she had a chance to move out of the way and did a quick healers scan of her body. His hazel eyes intently focused on her stormy blue, "You're a liar. How did your shoulder get hurt?"

Meg's eyes steadily held his as she asked, "I thought I was hiding it so well, why can I not hide anything from you?" She sighed as she dropped her gaze, "Just before we crossed the border my party got attacked by some raiders. We got all of them by the way, but I took a sword blow to the top of my shoulder before we did. Happy now?"

"No, why didn't you get a healing done on it? All it has had done to it is bandages." Adam demanded.

"We didn't have a healer traveling with us, we did the best we could. It is clean and well bandaged, so you can't complain." Meg shot back.

"I can to complain," Adam argued, "especially since I am a healer, let me see it and I will do what I can for it." He said while he went to the back of the tent for his healer's kit. When he came back Meg was just looking up at him with one eyebrow up. "NOW MEG," he said with force.

Meg sighed as she stood up and unbuckled her belt. She pulled off her tunic, leaving the thin shirt on underneath. The shirt she pulled off the shoulder revealing a white bandage, which she started trying to take off. Adam gently took over, taking off the bandage with great care. Meg winced as he cleaned the wound with some cotton. He muttered sorry as she felt his healing magic sink into her shoulder taking the pain away from it.

As Adam put another light bandage over the wound he explained that he healed as much of it as he could, which was most of it. It no longer was an open wound and only should feel a little tender to the touch. Meg barely heard the explanation as she tried to calm down her heart and breathing which for some reason were going really fast. She didn't understand it, she had many healings in her life but none of them left her like this. She shook her head and thanked Adam as she pulled on her tunic and buckled her belt back. As she was buckling the belt she noticed the bracelet on her wrist and held it up for Adam and asked.

"Should we keep these on now that the war is over? That was the whole reason for having them on anyways."

Surprised Adam looked at her, "I don't know. Do you want it off? Because it might be better to have them on just in case Prince Malcom tries to attack like the Regent King, mentioned he might."

Meg nodded her head and said happily, "Good idea, you are stuck with me in your head yet again."

Adam smiled to that response, "Maybe I should take it off if you put it that way."

Meg smacked him in the shoulder as she smiled at him before heading out the tent to look around.


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23

After Meg left Adam was left to think about their encounter. He had a feeling there was another reason why she came here, but what? Why did she have to be so mysterious all the time? He stepped out of the tent and went looking for Meg. He found her and Tren watching the soldiers practicing with their swords. They seemed to be having a good time, they were laughing over something. He watched her face as she listened to what Tren was saying before laughing and clapping him on the shoulder. He knew something was bothering her but she was acting so normal. He walked over to them and nodded his hello.

"Your troops are very good, Adam. Do you have the same ability as them?" Meg remarked innocently with a smile on her face.

Adam looked down at her, "You know I do, Meg what are you getting at?"

She beamed up at him, "Want to go a round with me? I want to see if I could beat you."

Adam glared at her, "No, you just had a healing on your shoulder, it is not ready to be swinging a sword around."

"You're no fun Adam, my shoulder is feeling fine right now." Meg protested.

He smiled at her, "I don't want your shoulder to be hurting later. But I'll tell you what, give your shoulder one more day to heal and then I'll take you on, and beat you."

Meg looked away thinking and then looked back and said, "You have a deal. But I will be the one who beats you." She then looked back at the soldiers fighting.

That night Adam wanted to try and speak to Meg and see if he was right about there being another reason why she made the trip to see him. He found her laying down on a grassy hill not far from the camp, looking up at the stars.

"They are beautiful, aren't they?" He commented as he sat down by her.

"What?" she asked looking over at him.

"The stars, I don't find enough time to relax and enjoy them."

"Me too," Meg whispered. "It gives you a time to think about things."

Adam took a deep breath and was about to ask why she was really here, when he heard her ask.

"Do you think that I can't protect myself?"

"What? Why are you asking that?" Adam asked surprised.

"It's just… It just seems that you keep protecting or telling me I need to keep better care of myself. Is it because you think I can't protect myself?"

Adam paused for a moment and collected his thoughts before answering, "I try and protect you because I want to, not because I think you are weak. I know you can take care of yourself, but that doesn't mean I don't worry."

"Why do you worry if you know I can take care of myself?" Meg asked.

"Do you worry about me even though I can take care of myself? Adam asked.

"…yes." Meg conceded. "…I guess you have a point. I am so tired of people telling me I can't do things because they are worried that I will be hurt or killed and then where will the Kingdom be? In battle I would be told to get back or to take shelter, or have so many people around me that I found it hard to concentrate."

Adam laughed, "But I bet you didn't heed their advice once."

Meg smiled, "only when they forced me too. Did that happen to you?"

Adam took a deep breath and answered, "Yes, it did. I got the _we have to protect the future king _attitude a lot. It is very annoying."

"At least I know that it isn't just me they did it too. I hate being treated like a girl."

Chuckling Adam responded, "Even though you are a girl."

"Oh you know what I mean." Meg said as she pushed Adam.

"I do, but you're going to have to live with this for the rest of your life. You better get used to it."

Meg made a face and sighed, "I hate being royalty. Can I go back to being a normal person?"

Adam answered kindly, "You know you can't do that. This is your responsibility."

"Do you ever feel like you don't want to be king?"

"Yes, sometimes I wish that I could go back to being the younger brother with a choice of what I could do with my life, but I can't and neither can you. We're stuck with this, but at least we have each other to talk to about our frustrations."

"Yes, you have a point there; in fact that is really why I came down here. I needed to talk to someone face to face about all this stuff." Meg confided in him.

"You're welcome, How long are you going to stay?"

"I'll leave the day after tomorrow. Give me one more day to rest and also take you up on your deal about the sword fight, so I can win." Meg finished with a smile.

Adam rolled his eyes, "You're not going to win, I am." He stood up and dusted off his pants, he held out his hand to help up Meg.

As she took it she replied, "We will have to see tomorrow, that is if I get a clean bill of health from my healer. I don't want him to be mad at me."

Adam laughed and said, "Well I'll have to have a talk with this healer of yours and make sure your ready for tomorrow, because who knows when the next chance I will have to beat you."

Meg enjoyed a relaxing morning talking with Adam's generals and walking around camp looking around. Their fight was scheduled for this afternoon, so all she had to do was relax and prepare for the fight. There was some talk that King Dmitri was coming to see the camp and talk to his son today. She was hoping to see him today. Then she could extend the invitation to invite Marin to her celebration herself to him. After lunch Adam and Meg were found warming up in the exercise area. They faced off while Tren started the fight.

The fight went on for quite a while, the guards who had accompanied Meg were amazed, they had seen Meg fight many times but not as hard or as well as she was doing today. They were thinking that she even might win this fight. Both Adam and Meg were blocking and swinging the practice swords with precision, it was going to come down to who had the most endurance. They both stopped to catch their breaths. Meg cocked her head, smiled and motioned for him to start again. Adam raised his eyebrow and started to come forward at her again. From there he started to dominate the match. He started using his size to overpower her. Meg kept trying to use her agility to get out of his way, but she was having a hard time he was too fast. She then tried to outsmart him and pulled a quick trick of ducking under a swing and coming from underneath. But Adam guessed what she was going to do and caught her in the middle knocking her down and causing her sword to fly out of her hand.

Meg cursed as she glared up at Adam. "Curse you, Adam. I can't believe you saw through that."

Adam smiled as he held out a hand to help her up, "How long have you been in my head? What do you expect?"

"I still have a few tricks up my sleeve that would surprise you." Meg challenged as she stood up. "Next time you're mine."

Adam's response was stopped by King Dmitri coming up and congratulating Adam on a good fight. Meg smiled and asked why she didn't get any comments on a good fight. The King smiled at her and apologized to her and told her she had a good fight. Meg rolled her eyes and walked over to where her guards were standing; she tossed the practice sword at one of them and accepted a water bottle from another one. She was disappointed that she didn't beat Adam today, but she knew she would have another chance at her celebration in two months.

Her guards commented that in their practices she never fought like she just did. She smiled and laughed, then reminded them that her shoulder was hurt for some of it. As she was talking with them, King Dmitri walked up and asked Meg to come and talk with him. She apologized to her guards and walked with King Dmitri to the command tent.

"It is nice to see you in person, Meg." He started, "I always saw you as a silvery projection. Now that I see you in person I know you remind me of someone I used to know."

Meg smiled and commented, "I get that a lot."

"So Adam has told me that you came here to give us some invitations to some celebration that you're having."

"It is technically my celebration, but my councilors are setting it up because they feel I need to get married and think this will work. But I would love it if Marin would come and participate in it. Adam has told me a lot about her and I would like to meet her."

"I think that we should be able to get her there, my only condition is that I want her to be introduced to some particular people, let's say I want her opinion on some potential marriage possibilities. I like to have her married to someone she likes. Can you do that?" He asked her.

Meg looked at him as if she was testing to see if he was serious about it. After a minute she nodded and said, "I can do that, I can see that she meets and interacts with your list of people. But you have to promise me that you won't force her to marry someone she doesn't want to."

He looked at her, surprised. "…You caught me off guard with that request. I love Marin and I will not force her into a marriage she doesn't want. That's why I want her to meet some potential matches there, so she can start meeting and knowing who she likes and doesn't."

Meg's expression softened and she smiled, "I believe you, I'm glad that you feel that way and will love to do as you ask."

Adam walked in then and looked at the both of them and sent them both a questioning look. Meg just smiled at him and shrugged her shoulders. She then motioned for both of them to sit down so they could talk.

The next morning Meg was saying goodbye, as her guards brought out the horses.

"Goodbye, King Dmitri. I am looking forward to seeing Marin soon." She traded a hand clasp. "Adam, I'll see you there too, and we will have a rematch, alright."

Adam smiled broadly, "You have a deal."

She saluted him and mounted her horse. She gave one last final wave to two men and gave the order to move out.


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24

Meg arrived back at her castle late, when she walked in the door after dropping off her horse at the stables she was surprised to see the foyer full of people wanting to talk with her, including Adriana and Simon. As soon as they saw her they began clamoring for her attention. She closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose as she tried to think above all the clatter. Letting out a deep breath she stood up straight and held out her hand for quiet.

"I realize that you all have very important business that you need to discuss with me," She started when it was quiet. "But I have been riding all day and am very tired. I will only talk with you tonight if someone will die if you don't talk to me this second. If that is not the case I will see you tomorrow in this order. Adriana, Simon and the other councilors, I will meet you in the council room right after breakfast. You have me until lunch time. Please make any requests or comments concise and to the point. After Lunch I will meet with the preparation committee for the upcoming celebration. You will have me until three. From three until dinner I will be in the council room for anything that doesn't fit with those. After dinner," Meg sighed and looked at the seamstress hovering anxiously in the corner, "I will be at your mercy. Please have everything ready then."

Meg looked tiredly around at everybody to see if there were any objections when she didn't see any immediately she gave a quick nod to them and walked quickly to her room where she collapsed on the bed and fell into a deep sleep.

When she woke up she could hear someone breathing quietly on the other side of the room. She sat up slowly to see Leti sitting calmly in a chair waiting for her.

"You didn't have me on your schedule for today, so I thought I would make an opening for me before breakfast." Leti chastised.

"I'm sorry, Leti" Meg groaned as she rolled out of bed, "I wasn't thinking very well last night. Plus I really couldn't tell all of them that I would need to talk to you before them. They don't know how smart you are."

"I know all they see is that I am blind." Leti commented bitterly.

"Oh don't take it that way, that misconception has its advantages."

"I know, I know. But anyway I don't know because of all the message diversion we had, if you heard that the council put Viggo of Trentson on suspension from the council."

Meg froze in place and turned to look at Leti. "They did what? Why?"

Leti continued on, "After you left for the war, I think a certain little birdie put in his ear that you couldn't handle leading the troops and this would be a good time to voice it."

"When I wasn't there?"

"Yes, the council took your side amazingly enough and kicked him out of court until you could deal with him. I thought I would be very important to make sure you knew of this before you met with your council." Leti sounded smug.

"Thanks Leti, I did need to know that." Meg said off-handily. "Come join me for breakfast and you can bring me up to date on what else has been happening."

Adriana and Simon waited in the council room for Meg to get there. Adriana was staring thoughtfully out the window before she commented, "Meg has grown up a bit."

Simon looked over at her, "Why do you say that?"

"The fact that she is meeting with us right off and not having us wait until after the celebration people."

Simon thought about that and commented back, "But that just tells us that she is avoiding meeting with the celebration committee."

"In a way, but it also tells us that she values us before the celebration committee. And that she is talking responsibility for her duties and not making us track her down to do them. Before the war she would have made us track her down or try and talk to her while she was having a dress fitted." Adriana said dryly.

Simon laughed, "When you put it that way, I have to agree with you. I wonder if her friendship with Tigree's Prince has caused some of these changes."

Adriana shrugged her shoulders and turned around to greet the rest of the councilors who had just walked in the door. A few minutes later Meg came in and sat down.

As she sat down she asked, "I would like to start out with the events that led up to Viggo being put on suspension. I have sent out a message asking for a conference with him, and would like to have your side of the story before I do that."

Adriana started, "Well he started to voice out that you shouldn't be out leading the troops during the war. We decided to give you the benefit of the doubt, but he wouldn't listen and kept trying to convince people to his way. So we got rid of him."

"Although now that I think about it, he was spending a lot of time consulting with Paul. Do you think that he was tricked by that traitor?" Ivan asked.

Meg looked over everybody, "That may be the case, I want to give him a chance to prove himself either way. So I will take care of that. What is next on the agenda, I am sure one of you drew up."

Meg finally walked in her room late that night, she was tired. After spending the whole morning discussing and making decisions about the affairs of the country. She then spent the whole afternoon being talked at and told who was going to be there and who she needed to be nice too and etc. She was slightly worried, they were going to invite Prince Malcom and his younger brother Armen. She was worried of what Malcom would do. But no matter how much she argued they insisted. She then spent the rest of the day trying on dress after dress after stupid dress. And then getting pricked with needles and pins.

She knew she was going to hate the next two months while she waiting for this stupid celebration to come and be over with.


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25

Meg was standing in the hallway greeting the first few people who had come for the celebration. She was bored already. All the people who had come so far were the men that her councilors where hoping would catch her eye. They had invited all the eligible dukes and their sisters in the country and that didn't count all the surrounding countries. A little over half of them had arrived so far, and it was only half way through the day. She had been introduced to so many people that she wasn't quite sure if she could remember everybody's name. They were also being so polite and shy that she didn't know what kind of people they were.

"_Adam?" _Meg sent out a silent plea, "_When are you arriving again?"_

_She heard him chuckling at her, "Marin and I should be arriving late tomorrow afternoon. Why? Are you bored already?"_

"_A little I am worried that all these people are lifeless the way they have been laughing at everything I say and smiling when I say something sarcastic. It is getting annoying, I hope they stop it soon." Meg vented._

"_And you really think that having me there will help this how?" Adam asked._

"_You're a real person who I can actually have a conversation with and not just talk about the weather for their trip here. That conversation I have had too many times to count."_

"_At least you haven't disappeared yet."_

_Meg laughed silently, "I have thought about it but I am on my best behavior for today, I won't say anything about tomorrow though."_

"_Go talk with your guests, I need you to know all their names by tomorrow so you can teach them to me, so I seem smart when I know everybody the first time around." Adam joked._

"_You're fooling yourself if you think I would give you such an advantage." Meg joked back as she closed the conversation, and turned her focus back to her guests that were chatting in groups around the room._

Meg breathed deeply and walked over to the closest group that had four people chatting. Meg forced a smile as the conversation died when she approached. "You don't have to stop the conversation for me," She said, "I just wanted to come join you and get to know you four better, what were you talking about?"

A pretty girl with apricot-colored hair and bright blue eyes spoke first, "Well, Your Highness we were talking about different difficulties we had while we were traveling here."

Meg stopped her before she could go any farther, "For one thing don't call me Your Highness, call me Meg. We are going to be around each other for two weeks, so we can drop the formalities. Also I can't remember your name for the life of me, can you all remind me?"

"Of course, Your…. sorry…. Meg. I am Addison, I am one the duchess from Honeywell. This is my twin brother Chadwick." She pointed at the man with the same colored hair and eyes standing by her. Meg nodded a greeting to both of them before turning to the other girl with chocolate brown hair and brown eyes.

She smiled and introduced herself as Priya a duchess from Volta, and the man standing by her with the black hair was a neighbor duke, Felix, who was kind enough to travel with her.

Meg smiled broadly and thanked them for introducing themselves again, and apologized for not remembering their names, there were too many to remember the first time around. She then listened to the conversation as they picked it back up. She asked questions and talked with them until it was dinner. They moved to the small tables in the dining rooms that were designed for small groups so everybody could talk and get to know each other. As they talked through dinner, Priya asked if there were any events on the schedule planned for tomorrow.

Meg said that there wasn't because she had assumed that everybody would still be tired from their trips, but they could do something if they wanted.

Priya smiled and exclaimed, "I have a great idea, we play it in Volta, it is a type of scavenger hunt, but we use items found in your gardens. I could set it up so we could do it in the afternoon tomorrow if you want to." She looked around excitedly at everybody. Meg was annoyed when they all looked at her waiting for her decision.

"It sounds like fun Priya. Let's do it. Do you need any help setting it up?" Meg asked.

"If you do, I'll help." Addison jumped in.

"I will need to talk to your head gardener to see what is found in your gardens tomorrow morning." Priya said after telling Addison that she could help.

Meg nodded and told Priya she would have the gardener meet her after breakfast.

The next morning Meg met with councilors and dealt with kingdom affairs before the activity in the afternoon. She was still trying to get Viggo back on the council. She felt like she needed his offense in the council to help keep things balanced.

Just after lunch the two princes from Mason appeared. Meg met them before going out into the gardens for the scavenger hunt. She formally met Malcom and his brother Armen. She wasn't surprised when Armen asked her if she had room to house the small group of "guards" that they brought along. Malcom insisted it was for safety because there was still a lot of raiders that still resided along the way. Meg noted that Armen was not happy that his brother had brought them along.

Meg offered to have them shown to their rooms and that they could get settled and then join the group for dinner. They were currently about to start a scavenger hunt, when Armen heard that he asked if they could wait for him to change clothes so he could join them.

Meg smiled at him, "Of course, I will wait for you here. My servants will show you your rooms."

As they were shown out Sam came and approached Meg. "What are we going to do about the guards?"

"Watch them very closely. I want to know what their moves are, I also want to know whenever Malcom speaks to them. I don't want to be caught off guard if Malcom is planning anything." Meg said solemnly.

Sam nodded, and then walked out the door.

Meg was waiting patiently with Addison who had come back in looking for her, when Armen came down. Meg smiled as she waved her hand and told him to hurry up.

They arrived out in the gardens where everyone was waiting. Priya explained that they had already divided into groups of two and that Meg and Armen were now a group of two. She explained the rules quickly and gave everyone a sheet of paper that was full of items for them to find. She finally gave the go signal and everyone scattered looking for the items.

Meg saw this as a perfect chance to talk with Armen.

"How was your ride here?" She asked casually.

"The weather held out which is good, the only thing I have to complain about is having to make it with my brother." Armen remarked.

"Do you two not get along then?" Meg asked.

Armen smiled crookedly, "Not really, and the situation has gotten worse since there is talk about replacing him as king with me, as my uncle has told you."

Meg grimaced, "So Tobis told you about that talk then,"

"He did. He is the one pushing really hard to get Malcom out of the way. In a way I'm surprised I made it here alive. I think Malcom is getting desperate."

"What does he have to do to keep the throne?" Meg asked.

"At this point, I believe either marry you or Tigree's princess who is coming. In fact my uncle said it wouldn't be a bad idea for me to try that tactic as well." He smiled looking sorry.

"Don't worry, this whole celebration is based around the fact that my councilors are hoping that one of you fine gentlemen are going to get lucky and marry me. You have to love politics." Meg said with a shrug.

"You do indeed." He replied with a laugh.

With all the talking they did while on their search Meg wasn't surprised that they came back second to last in the hunt. She wasn't mad about that result she had a good talk with what should be soon the new king of a neighboring country.

During dinner Adam and Marin finally arrived. They both walked into the dining room, when Meg saw them she stood up and walked over to them. She greeted Adam with a rare hug she so glad that he finally made it. She then turned her attention to Marin who had the same brown hair and had the same hazel eyes as Adam. She smiled and introduced herself as she led them back to her table she finally noticed that everybody was staring at them. She paused and looked around where everybody suddenly pretended to be very busy eating.

"What was that about?" Meg murmured to Adam as they walked.

"It was probably the hug." Adam murmured back.

"That is not such a big deal."

"You caught me off guard, and I know you. You probably surprised them completely." Adam shot back as they sat down.

Meg sent him a dirty look before introducing them to her table partners.


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26

Over the next few days Meg did all that she could do to stay pleasant and smiling. She was getting sick of being constantly surrounded by annoying boys who thought that she would marry them if they were around her the longest. While she always tried to be polite and nice to them, she was beginning to think that the only way she could get them to leave her alone was to kill them. Trying to avoid that because it wouldn't help her relations with the other countries she began to avoid them. When she could she would always try and sit with new people during meals and tried to get paired up with other people on activities.

The activities had been taken over by Priya. She had so many ideas on how to turn a plain horse ride into a game by seeing how many flowers you could pick from your horses back, to different relay races. The best part in Meg's mind was that Priya seemed to know how much Meg wanted to get away from the throne hunters and would engineer ways for her to be with other people.

After dinner was always the hardest time to get away from them though. It was free time to read, go for walks, or get together and just talk. Meg began to use different tactics to disappear from them and begin the nightly ritual of them wandering around the castle trying to find her. Meg did have a little pity on them, she would always find another guest and be with them. So if they used their heads they could possibly find her. One night Meg was wandering around the castle looking for a guest that she hadn't had an opportunity to get to know very well to spend the rest of the evening with. She was walking down the hall where the music room was located when she heard the piano being played. The music seemed to float on the air as she came closer. She quietly opened the door and stood and listened as the blond haired girl played her music.

When it finally stopped Addi looked up surprised to see someone by the door, "Oh Meg I didn't realize that you were there."

Meg smiled, "You're amazing, where did you learn to play like that?" she asked as she came to stand by the piano.

"I have been playing since I was a little girl. I have always loved playing." Addi explained.

"Could you possibly show me how to play a little?" Meg asked hopefully.

Addi beamed up at her as she scooted over on the piano bench and motioned for Meg to sit next to her.

In the meantime the hunt had started down in the dining room. Adam and Armen were sitting by a small table playing chess when the four main throne hunters came up to them. Cale, prince of Honeywell, Treyton, prince from Nubia, Quinlan, duke from Myrr, and Chaim, prince from Volta. All younger brothers searching for a throne to rule from, and all handsome.

"Adam, Where is Meg hiding?" Cale asked in an impatient voice.

Adam looked up from the game and answered, "I don't know why you ask me this every night but the answer is always the same. I don't know. I have been here playing this game with Armen since dinner was over. I don't know where she went."

Chaim leaned over threatenily and said, "You are for some reason the person who knows Meg the best here. She trusts you now tell us where she is."

Adam sent a puzzled look over to Armen and asked him, "Haven't I been with you all evening beating you at chess? I wasn't even at the same table as her at dinner tonight. I haven't talked with her for hours I don't know where she is. Ask Leti, she might know where Meg is."

Quinlan scoffed, "How would the blind girl know where Meg is."

"Give Leti a chance she knows a lot more than you think." Armen defended.

The four sent dirty looks at him and Armen before turning around and continuing on their search.

"I swear I tell them the same thing every night and they still don't believe me. She doesn't tell me her every move." Adam complained as he moved his rook.

"I can see why Meg hides from them." Armen stated.

"She doesn't really hide from them. She is somewhere with one of the other guests getting to know them. If you know where they are she is easy to find. But they are idiots who don't want to get to know her." Adam spat, "Checkmate, by the way."

"I can never beat you at this game. I should go back to challenging opponents that I can beat."

"That is no fun, at least for me." Adam joked.

Armen stood up and stretched, "Well, I at least concede for tonight, maybe I'll beat you tomorrow. " He bide Adam a good night and walked away.

Adam sat lining up the chess pieces for the next players thinking about those idiots who were trying to get Meg. He smiled as he stood up thinking how she was smarter than all of them put together and they didn't have a chance with her. He headed up to his room, planning on going to sleep early. He had been getting up early and practicing his sword with the guards. Depending on how busy the morning was, Meg was sometimes there. He was hoping she would be there tomorrow because he wanted to beat her again.

Adam headed down the hall to his room and he heard the piano playing. Addi must be in there practicing, he thought before he heard underneath the beautiful music, a simple melody being picked out. He stopped and smiled, Meg must be in there tonight. He poked his head in through the door and smiled fondly as saw Meg sitting by Addison head bouncing to the beat as she picked out the song she just learned.

Meg looked up at him and smiled. "I thought I felt you, Adam. What do you think, am I amazing yet?"

Adam came in the room and cocked his head. "Amazing? I don't know about that."

Meg scoffed at him and turned to Addi, "He has no appreciation for the arts and the fact that I have only been playing for one hour."

Addi nodded trying to keep a straight face as she looked back and forth from Meg and Adam. She then looked at the clock and squeaked with surprise, "Is it that time already? I told Priya that I would help her prepare for the activities for tomorrow." She stood up quickly and disappeared through the door leaving both of them surprised.

Meg was the first to recover, "Addi has been teaching me, see I can play this already." Meg looked down at her hands and began playing her little song.

"I must say you are good for someone who has just started playing." Adam conceded as he came to stand by her.

"Do you think that you could do any better?" Meg shot back.

Adam just smiled and motioned for her to scoot over. He sat next to her and started playing the same song she had just played only more elaborate. Meg sat there in surprise and looked up at his smug face when he finished.

"My mother insisted that I learn at least the basics of the piano. She always said a good leader is a balanced one."

"Teach me how to play another song." Meg demanded.

They laughed and kidded with each other as the night progressed, Meg learned his new song fast as he showed her, his hand over hers, note by note. After she learned it, he pulled her close besides him so he could reach around her and put each hand above or below hers and they played a duet. Meg laughed at the end and looked over at Adam and thanked him for the fun lesson, that is the most fun she has had all week. After they sat there face to face eyes locked for several moments, Meg hurry and stood up apologizing that she needed to go to bed it was getting late. She thanked Adam again and disappeared from the room.

Adam sat there for a couple moments longer looking down at the piano wondering what just happened, and why he wanted her to come back so he could teach her another song. He then stood up and went to bed. Neither of them noticed that Leti and Marin saw them leave the music room.

By the time the morning training came around, everything was back to normal. Meg was teasing him that she would beat him today and he was taunting her that she was dreaming. But today it was deemed a tie by the captain on duty.

As Meg came in from the training grounds she met Marin and Leti who were on a walk. Meg smiled at them and greeted them. She was surprised when Leti returned the greeting stiffly and Marin treated her very coldly. She let it pass for the moment wondering what was wrong with Leti and perplexed at why Marin could be mad at her. But she watched Marin for the rest of the day and saw that it was just her Marin was mad at. She was perfectly pleasant to everybody else. Meg was curious and wanted to get to the bottom of this, so after dinner she headed straight for Marin and hooked elbows with her, and invited her for a walk. She led Marin up to the top of the castle walls where Meg often came up to think and where they could be alone.

Meg sat down on a bit of stone and looked up at Marin and asked, "Are you going to tell me why you are mad at me?"

Marin folded her arms and turned away from Meg. "No."

"Okay, then let's talk about something else. Do you like the celebration so far? Enjoying the activities?"

Marin answered shortly, "I am enjoying myself."

"I am sorry to contradict you, but that statement didn't sound very happy." Meg pointed out concerned.

"It's because you're here, I enjoy myself when you aren't around."

Meg looked away at the ground, not quite sure what to say to that. She started saying softly, "You know when we were out of the battle field Adam and I would start talking about things we missed from home the most. For me it was the few friends I had here, for Adam it was talking with you. He told me all about you, all the adventures you had before he went away for school, and the chess games you won. I was so excited to meet you. In his eyes you were the bravest person he knew. I wanted to become friends with some who was so important in Adam's life. I am sorry for whatever I did that is making that impossible." With that Meg stood up and started walking towards the stairs to climb down.

"Wait, Meg." Marin called out. "I shouldn't be taking this out on you but I can't help it. When Adam came home after the war all he talked about was Meg did this and Meg did that. I know he was trying to get me excited for this celebration but all it made me was feel intimidated by you. You were taking my brother away from me."

Meg was surprised by this last comment and just looked blankly into Marin's eyes.

"We don't talk as much as we used to. We don't play chess as much. He is too busy for me, but he is never too busy for you."

Meg snorted at that last comment, "You have never seen him kick me out, or ignore messages that I am trying to send him. He has been too busy for me."

"I don't know how to explain it but I am no longer first in his life, you are." Marin tried to explain.

Meg sat down on her rock and explained, "I don't know about me being first in his life but as you grow up things change, priorities that were so important when you are younger get moved to the side when you are older, or in your case change slightly. When you were kids you and Adam were both children who would never have the throne. You were best friends with each other because you were there for each other. You are now growing up and meeting new people, some of these new people will became first because you see them every day. Your relationship with Adam is changing, it is not becoming less important to him, because you will always be important to him but it is changing because you and Adam are changing. Am I making any sense? Or do I just seem like I am babbling?" Meg asked.

"No, you are. I understand what you are trying to say, it doesn't make it any easier to except that my big brother is growing up and leaving me behind." Marin said.

"He is not leaving you behind. Leaving you behind would be forgetting you exist, or not letting you come here. He is letting you grow up too. He still talks to you." Meg said with passion.

"You act like this has happened to you." Marin observed.

Meg just looked up at the sky for a moment, "Because it has…" She paused so long Marin didn't think she was going to continue. "When I was growing up, my father was always helping me learn the spy trade. He would take me on missions, train my magic until it was dry. Giving me tactical advice as he showed me different battles and situations that have happened before. Whenever he was gone on missions he would always write, when he came home he would always tell me about his adventures. I grew up with his love and support." Meg closed her eyes hoping that it would stop the tears. "But when I was picked out to become the next Queen my father disappeared from my life. I haven't seen him, or heard from him since that day. That is being left behind, Marin." The last part came as a whisper.

Marin stood there looking at Meg who was looking up at the sky in a new light. She didn't see a regal queen anymore, she saw a young girl who was trying to deal with everything that had been given to her.

Meg stood up quietly and looked at Marin before saying, "Give your brother the chance to show that he is not leaving you behind. And if he does try to do it, just hit him on the back of his head. Hopefully it will cause his brain to start working." Meg smiled and winked at her before walking away leaving Marin to think about what had been said.

Meg walked down to the dining room to find that only Malcom and Armen were in there, playing chess. She walked over and sat by Armen and asked who was winning.

"I'm not quite sure at this point, Meg. It could go either way." Armen said cheerfully. Malcom just glared in their direction.


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter 27

Meg sat there watching the chess game chatting friendly with Armen, all while aware of Malcom's glare on her. This was the reason why she had been avoiding Malcom. She wasn't quite sure about what he would do. And all this glaring was creeping her out.

Adam walked into the room pronouncing, "There you are, Meg. I have been looking for you and Marin. I was hoping to get beat by her today in chess since my friend Armen here can't seem to do it." He came to a stop when he reached the table. "Where is Marin, by the way? I did see you two leave dinner together." He asked when he realized that Marin wasn't there.

"She is up on top," Meg said quickly knowing Adam would get the reference. "We had a chat and then I left her up there to think. I think she is still up there."

"What were you talking about?" Adam asked confused.

"Ask her." Meg said simply as she started turning back to the chess game. _She and I needed to talk about something, don't worry, just ask her, she might tell you. But enjoy playing chess. Meg said quietly in his head as he turned around and headed out of the dining area. _

"_You and your mysteries. Someday I am going to solve every one of them." Adam resolved._

_Meg just laughed at this idea and shot back, "You wish."_

The next day Priya had arranged a picnic lunch. So they saddled up their horses and went on a ride out beyond the town into the nearby forest. Meg was happy when Marin came and awkwardly chatted with her for part of the ride, before Marin was scooted off to the side as Treyton and Cale came up on both sides of Meg's horse and began riding besides her.

"It's a beautiful day, Meg isn't it." Cale said cheerfully.

"But not as beautiful as our company, Cale." Treyton broke in.

Meg rolled her eyes before commenting, "Drop the flattery, I don't like it."

"Even if it is the truth." Treyton said sweetly.

"I said drop it." Meg flatly stated.

"Then let's talk about the upcoming dance Priya is arranging for us." Cale injected.

Treyton looked puzzled at Cale before commenting, "Dance? The only dance I know about is the masquerade that is at the end of the celebration."

"Priya is arranging a small dance tomorrow to make sure we know all the steps to the dances we will be using in the masquerade." Cale said slowly.

Meg rolled her eyes again as they argued back and forth about the upcoming dance. She was about to excuse herself and go find someone else to talk to when Cale asked her a question.

"Sorry, can you repeat your question?" Meg apologized.

"I was wondering if you had a partner for the first dance tomorrow." He asked again.

Meg sighed, "I think Priya is organizing all the partners for the dances to make sure everyone dances with everyone else. You should ask her who my first dance will be."

At this moment Chad, Addi's brother, saved her and called for her, "MEG! You need to come here, you need to see this."

Meg nodded goodbye to the two and moved her horse forward to Chad. She whispered thanks as he made a big show of showing her a tree that he thought looked like a little old lady. She spent the most of the time relatively bully-free because of her friends were looking out for her, which she appreciated a lot.

That evening was spent stuck in Leti's sitting room with many of the other girls discussing the dance and what they were going to wear and who they wanted to dance with the most. Leti had stiffly told Meg that she had to be there, even though Meg was hoping to sneak away and take care of some kingdom business that needed to be taken care of. Every time Meg tried to move slowly to the door, Leti would look at her and raise her eyebrows. And every time Leti did that Meg cursed herself for teaching that stupid seeing spell to her that she has seemly perfected.

"Who do you think is the handsomest man here?" Farah asked everyone.

"Your brother Chad is cute, Addi."

"I like Felix and that black hair of his."

"I think Cale is handsome."

Then one girl looked at the bored Meg and then looked quickly away, when she did it again Meg asked, "What?"

"I think Adam is amazing." She stammered out.

Meg looked at her surprised and confused, thinking 'so what does that have to do with me?'

Priya took pity on the girl and responded, "We know that he is yours, Meg."

Meg looked at her dumbfounded, "Mine? How is he mine?"

"Come on we all see how close you two are."

Meg looked at all the faces looking at her before responding, "Try fighting a war with somebody and not get _close_ as you are all calling it."

They all shook their heads and muttered something about denial before Addi asked Meg, "How could you fight in a battle? I would be so scared."

"I had to; I was fighting for my country." Meg stated.

"They shouldn't have let you fought, you are a girl." A Brunette pointed out.

Meg forced herself to answer calmly, "Just because I am a girl doesn't mean I can't help protect those I hold dear. In a way everybody can fight. I fought with my brains and magic. While others fought with their bodies and hearts. Do not sell yourself short just because you think you are weak." Meg was about to stand to leave when Leti gave her another look and said calmly, "What is everyone's worst fears? Mine is being in a place that I don't know, and fumbling around until I knock everything over and break it."

This caused Addi to laugh and exclaim, "My worst fear is being in front of an audience and not being able to play a thing on the piano."

"I hate standing in high places." Said another girl.

Meg listened as the new topic was hit and much more comfortable to her than the last one, though she still couldn't help thinking about the comment "_We all know he is yours." _In a way she resented the topic but she couldn't help but wonder….

She was still lost in her thoughts when she noticed that they were leaving and she was left alone in the room with Leti.

Meg turned to Leti and complimented her on how well she had diverted the discussion earlier. Leti just looked at her coolly with her blank eyes. Meg stopped and asked, "What's the matter?"

Leti turned away and with barely controlled anger said, "I don't want to talk about it."

Meg looked her surprised and was taken back by her anger, "Is there anything I can do, you are upset over something."

Leti remarked, "I don't know if I can talk to you about it. Because it is you I am angry at."

"Why? What have I done?"

"It makes it worse that you are so clueless about it, and I am not sure I can tell you." Leti went on.

"Tell me, so I can fix it." Meg pressed.

"The first man to ever be nice to, to dance with me, still talk to me after finding out that I was blind, to still treat me like a equal was Adam. I hoped that it was because he liked me and not because of you. I hoped he would like me enough to … I can't do this anymore, I can't be your friend anymore. I don't like being around you, you make me….. you make me want to cry. Leave now, please."

Meg was stunned as she looked at her friend, she had no clue that Leti had been feeling like this, she numbly nodded and went silently out the door.

Adam and several of the other men were wondering what to do, most of the girls had holed themselves up in one of the rooms and left them bored by themselves. He was walking with Armen to the library to hopefully find a book to occupy themselves when he heard an argument coming from down the hall. They went to check it out and found that Viggo was arguing with Ivan, one of the other councilors.

Adam gave a quick farewell to Armen and went up to the two arguing men and asked what the matter was.

Viggo quickly turned to him and said, "He does not believe that I was tricked into my actions before by that traitor Paul."

Ivan countered, "I think he may have been foolish to do what he did but tricked seems a little strong. I think he knew what he was doing."

Adam ushered them into a room to talk about the problem. Two hours later he and the two men emerged from the room having finally reached an understanding that he hoped would lead to Viggo being allowed back into the council, he knew Meg wanted him on there for his view and sway with the southern part of the country. He quickly checked through his link with her to see where she was so he could pass the news on, but she had her "_don't even think about bothering me_" barrier up. He was curious because that wasn't up often, so he went in search of her.

When he finally found her, she was tucked up in one of the high towers that over-looked the city.

"There you are, I have been looking for you everywhere." Adam said breathlessly as he approached her.

"I don't feel like having company at the moment." She stated.

He shrugged and sat down next to her, and looked out over the city with her. After a few long moments he remarked, "You like to hide in some high places, you know."

She just sent a glare as a response.

"Oh, I know you don't feel like having company but I have made a discovery that I wanted to tell you." He waited a moment for a response and when she didn't say anything he went on, "And that discovery is that I am liked better by your councilors than mine. I just solved an argument between two of your councilors that if I tried to solve a similar argument back at home, I would have had to brought in the whole council, how sad is that?" He reflected.

Meg gave a small chuckle, and murmured, "I wonder why?"

"I don't know," Adam responded, "But I believe I just convinced, Ivan to let Viggo back on the council so in your next council meeting I would bring it up and see if it worked."

Meg smiled a little more and nodded.

He then pressed his luck and asked, "Now what is bothering you?"

Meg shrugged as the smile disappeared and said, "I don't want to talk about it."

He leaned over, brought his hand up and caught her chin and turned her head to look at him, "You've been crying. I don't think I have ever seen you cry. What is the matter? You can tell me." He said his eyes concerned.

She shook her head out of his hand and said again, "I don't want to talk about it."

He responded, "When you feel up to talking about it, I am here, you can tell me, alright?"

When she slowly nodded, Adam turned around and began the descent down. He went directly to Leti's room and knocked on her door. When Leti came and answered it, he asked, "I just came from the top tower, where I found Meg crying. Since she wouldn't talk to me, I was hoping you might know what to do, since you are her oldest friend."

Leti turned away from him and remarked, "I don't think I can help you in this matter, since I was the one she fought with."

Adam surprised said, "What! You fight all the time but nothing serious. What happened?"

"I said I didn't want to be her friend anymore."

Adam just looked at her dumbfounded, "Why?" he asked when he gathered his thoughts.

"She is so stupid sometimes. She knows all these things about everybody else but when it comes to herself she is an idiot."

Adam made a face as he nodded, "She is that, she isn't very good with her feelings."

Leti looked at him and scowled, "She didn't even care about what I was feeling."

"Did you tell her? I mean sometimes we get so used to her being a couple steps ahead we forget that she only knows what she hears from her informants, also with this celebration thing going I bet she is not up to her usual step."

Leti stopped and thought for a moment, "You might be right….. Can I ask you a question? Did she tell you to be friends with me?"

Adam looked at her surprised, "No, she didn't. I knew that anybody she trusts as much as you, I could as well. I won't bother you any longer, please fix this between you, friends shouldn't stay at odds long." And then he walked off. He was puzzled about what they could have fought about and wondered about that last question Leti asked him.


	28. Chapter 28

Chapter 28

After not sleeping much the night before Meg was not looking forward to the dance that night. During the day, through a bit of planning she had managed to avoid Leti. At the dance it would be much harder and Meg didn't really want to be there. But as the appointed hour arrived she found herself at the dance. All the girls were dressed in their pretty little dresses and all the boys were handsomely dressed in their suits. Meg on the other hand felt like a stuffed peacock in her light blue dress. It had gems sewn on it in panels down her skirt. The bodice had light blue embroidery all over it as well. Meg was sure she looked like a peacock, and she was reminded how much she hated dances. At least her first dance was with Adam, but unfortunately her last dance was with Cale. Meg walked into the room behind everyone else looking around for Adam.

Adam was standing in the front of the room waiting with the other men for the women to come into the room. He looked at his card again telling him the order that he was to dance with everyone. He smiled as he read Meg's name again. The first dance was always the longest. He liked dancing with Meg, she was so graceful and was so easy to dance with, unlike some of the others he imagined on this list would be. As the girls came in he kept a look out for Meg expecting her to be first. When he couldn't find her he was just about to call out in his mind to see where she was when he saw her. The dress she was in fit her perfectly, and matched the color of her eyes, bringing them out. He couldn't take his eyes off her as she walked in and looked around. They finally locked eyes and she smiled shyly. As she came up to him, he said, "Meg, you look amazing tonight."

Meg looked at him with her left eyebrow raised, "Adam, you know I don't like flattery."

"Meg… I have seen you in riding gear, armor, covered in dirt, and as a silvery form. I know when you look amazing or not. IT is not flattery, it is the truth."

Meg smiled up at him and curtsied her acceptance of his remark, "I guess from you, I will accept it. Thank you. You look good as well."

He held out his hand to start the dance as the music started the introduction, she accepted it and he put his other hand on her waist drawing her close. All while not losing eye contact. Meg smiled as the dance began. She knew she was in safe hands and it would be a fun dance because Adam never liked keeping things simple.

As the dance got going, Adam looked down at her and asked, "So are you still in a fight with Leti?" She looked at him surprised and asked, "How did you know I was fighting with Leti?"

He smiled and shrugged, "I have my contacts just like you."

Meg scoffed and her face turned sad, "No, we are still fighting. I need to apologize to her but I don't quite know how to do it."

Adam softly smiled and said, "You will find a way, just give it time."

She thanked him and they turned to happier subjects for the remainder of the dance. The dance with him in her mind was too short, most of the other ones were painful and were too long. The idiots kept trying to talk to her about all their amazing qualities, trying to impress her and not paying attention to what they were doing. She had her toes stepped on, and been run into other couples so many times she stopped counting. The dance with Malcom was just plain awkward, they were as far apart as they could get and still be dancing. And Malcom's famous glare was still on her for the whole dance, while she looked around and tried to make small chat about the different things she was seeing.

But the dance she was dreading most of all was the last one with Cale, as her last dance he would have the opportunity to escort her to the hall where her room was to say good night. He was a good dancer and didn't run her into anybody but she still was on edge. As the dance ended he made sure they were one of the last ones to leave the ballroom. And instead of leading her up the stairs to the hallway where her room was located, he tried to lead her outside onto one of the balconies. Meg stopped and asked why they were going out there.

"I thought it would be nice to get a breath of fresh air before we call it a night. We have been dancing all night in a stuffy ballroom." Cale said smoothly.

"I am fine, I just want to get to my rooms it has been a long night." Meg calmly said as she started to turn around.

She felt him grab her wrist and twirled her around so her back was against the wall. "No, I know what you want," he said as he came closer.

Meg coolly looked at him in the eye and said steely, "I would recommend that you let me go at once or you will not like the consequence."

He just smirked and asked what she could do, before bringing his mouth to hers and kissing her with the roughest kiss she had ever had. Meg hated it, she hated him, for treating her like a thing and not a person. She tried to free her arms but he only tried to deepening the kiss, making her feel sick in her very soul. She closed her eyes and concentrated on a single magic lightening thread. She pulled it out and slammed it into his body where ever he was touching her. Cale jerked back as the electric current went through his body and he fell unconscious on the floor.

Meg leaned back against the wall, trying to steady herself. That attack being an elemental attack took a lot out of her, she could feel her hands shaking against the wall. She opened her eyes and looked coldly at him laying on the floor debating whether to call for a footman to take care of him but she decided to leave him there, he should be out all night and would be found in the morning by the first person who walked by here.

She took a shaking step around him and stumbled to the stairs, at this point she sat down and tried to catch her breath. She wasn't there long when she heard someone coming down the stairs quickly. She turned around and was surprised to see Adam there. She looked at him and asked, "How did you know?…"

He smiled and replied, "I felt first a lot of anger and then lightening. You did an elemental spell didn't you?"

She pointed over by the wall where Cale was laying and flatly said, "That idiot wouldn't listen to me, and then kissed me. So yes I did an elemental spell on him."

Adam looked back at her, "He kissed you?"

"Yes, with a lot of force. I warned him if he didn't let go of me he wouldn't like the consequences." Meg defended herself.

Adam shook his head, "He is an idiot, not to listen to a warning like that. What are you going to do with him?"

"Let him sleep the night on the floor, and we'll see who finds him first in the morning." Meg said coolly.

"Sounds like a good idea," He extended his hand to help her up, "Come on let's get you to bed."

She put her shaking hand in his, "I'm afraid I can't walk very well, that spell takes a lot out of me."

Adam pulled her up and next to him, twining his arm around her waist and helped her walk up the stairs. She unconsciously leaned into him, finding comfort and strength there. When they reached her rooms Adam opened the door and asked, "You'll be alright?"

"I will be fine with a little sleep, thanks Adam." She replied as she walked shakily inside. Adam closed the door quietly and went back to his room thinking about that snake Cale downstairs on the floor. He was angrier then he let Meg know. In fact as he thought about it, he realized that he was angrier than he knew. How dare that idiot Cale touch her? He caught himself because he realized that he letting his anger past his barriers and might accidently wake up Meg. He sat down on a chair in his rooms and willed himself to calm down. He wondered why he was feeling so strongly about this before dismissing it and began thinking of a plan to disgrace the idiot.

In the morning he woke up some not so ready to wake up men and had them come and set up camp in front of the still sleeping Cale. After explaining why he woke them up so early after such a late night, Chad, Felix, and some of the other visiting men were quite alright with being woken up so early. They stood around Cale in a circle giving him no way out. Adam reached his hand bringing just enough healing power to wake him up but nothing to help relieve the pain he would be feeling from the lightening.

Cale woke up with a start, the first words out of his mouth were, "You'll pay for that you stupid girl." He looked up and instead of seeing Meg he saw Adam looking angrily down at him.

"Who will pay for what?" Adam asked.

"um… nothing… I must have sleepwalked in order to be down here. Bad dream, heh… heh…" He tried to joke as he stood shakily up. That was when he noticed all the others around him. He smiled as he tried to walk past them.

Chad and Felix pushed him back, "You're not going anywhere until we hear what happened last night." Felix demanded.

"Nothing happened last night," Cale stammered, "I just slept walked. Opps."

Adam had been prepared for an excuse, "That is not what I heard Cale, it would be much easier if you just told us what you tried to do to Meg last night."

"What did she tell you?" Cale demanded, "Whatever it is it's a lie."

Adam inspected his fingernails and calmly said, "She said that you forced her to kiss you, and she warned you to stop and you didn't so she did a lightening spell to get you off of her." He looked up at Cale daring him to say that was a lie.

Cale looked around him and knew he wouldn't be able to lie his way out of this, so he said, "That is true, but she deserved it. She has been yanking us around on a chain, making us think that she might marry one of us."

Chad looked surprised at this remark, "Meg hasn't done any of that to me, or anybody I have been around. I think you are imagining things Cale. Just like you are going to imagine a reason that you have to leave to go back home today. You think you could manage that, Cale?"

Cale looked around at all their resolute faces and nodded. Only then would they let him shoulder past and make his way upstairs. Chad looked at Adam disgusted, "I can't believe he did that. What if it had been my sister instead of Meg? Addi can't do any spells, she wouldn't have been able to defend herself. I am glad you woke me up Adam, and let me help get rid of that scumbag."

Adam smiled sadly, "I know what you mean, Marin couldn't have defended herself either. I wish that it didn't have to happen to Meg either. I bet she is going to be mad this morning when she wakes up."

"Oh yeah, I bet she is, I am going to try and stay away from her. I'm going out to wake up some more on the training ground, want to come?"

Adam quickly checked to see in Meg was still asleep, since she was, he accepted the invitation to go along.

That day was a very lazy day, everyone was tired from the dance and just wanted to curl up in chairs with a book or talk to a friend. It also didn't help that it was raining. Meg when she finally woke up realized that she had missed breakfast and lunch. She also felt like being alone and not talking to anybody.

But of course that wasn't to be, the first to come in was Leti carrying a tray of food for her. "I heard what happened last night and I know you don't want to see anybody right now but I needed to talk to you.

Meg stiffed up when Leti said that but didn't say anything as she started to butter a roll. Leti continued, "I have given a lot of thought of what I said to you the night before and I want to apologize. I was harboring a dream that Adam would fall in love with me and it hurt my feelings when I realized that it never would happen, so I took it out on you. I am sorry, I shouldn't have said those things."

Meg looked up at Leti and said, "I was trying to think of a way to apologize to you. I should have recognized your feelings and I am sorry I didn't. I didn't even realize you had them for Adam, I am not a very good friend." She said looking down.

Leti laughed, "I didn't tell you anything, so how in the world were you to know. Anyway I accept your apology. Now on to some happy news about what happened to that idiot Cale. Adam and a bunch of the men woke him up this morning got him to confess what he did and sent him packing for home."

Meg smiled at that, glad she didn't have to deal with him, because she probably would kill him instead of sending him packing.

Leti kept on talking, "I am hoping you will come down for dinner, everybody is expecting you to be very angry and not to come out but it will be good if you come out and show that you are better than that, if you can."

Meg sighed as she leaned back in her chair, "Do I have to, Leti? I just don't want to deal with people today."

Leti looked at her and replied, "Yes, you do. The council is also worried about you and would like to see you, this afternoon, if possible."

Meg sat up and finished eating, before forcing herself to get up. Her whole body ached, she now remembered why she didn't use the lightening spells very much. She dressed slowly listening to Leti talking about what gossip was going around about The Attack, as it was being called. When she was finished she sent a servant to go tell the council she was ready to see them and sent Leti off to tell everybody else she was living and not as angry as everybody expected once she heard the idiot was already on his way.

Meg slowly entered the council room, looking around surprised to see everybody already there and sitting. "This is surprising, usually I beat you all here." She commented as she made her way to her chair, "What is the special occasion?"

"The special occasion? The special occasion?" Simon huffed, "You get attacked and you call it a special occasion."

Meg calmly looked at him and said, "I will not get mad over such a little thing, He has been sent home in disgrace, and that is good enough for me. I will not cause a larger incident than that. Is there another reason I was called here? I was told it was very important."

Adriana looked over at Meg, "Mostly the councilors wanted to make sure you were alright. They were spooked by all the gossip."

Meg made a face and motioned for Adriana to continue. "We also wanted to tell you that we have decided to allow Viggo to come back into the council with certain conditions applied."

Meg nodded and said, "Good, His voice is important to the southern part of the country, it will help make sure every part of Myrr is heard when the council meets."

They continued on until dinner taking care of loose ends and other problems that had a raised since their last meeting.


	29. Chapter 29

Chapter 29

Dinner that night was awkward. Everybody was walking around Meg as if they were walking on eggshells. Meg tried her best to stay calm and reassuring that everything was alright. She thanked those who helped Adam sincerely and was grateful that they had taken care of the problem. She excused herself early and went up to her favorite thinking spot on the roof. Adam found her sitting there her knees tucked underneath her chin looking up at the stars.

"What are you thinking about?" Adam asked.

"If I am being stupid by insisting that I pick who I marry." She said softly.

Adam came and sat down by her, "Why do you say that?"

"Look at what is happening. I have all these idiots trying to marry me to get my throne, the council is trying everything they can to get me married, and I am being resistant to it all. It is creating a conflict that really shouldn't be there." She said sadly.

"If you are thinking that, why are you so insistent that you pick who you marry?" Adam asked.

Meg paused as she looked up at the stars thinking for a few moments before finally answering. "I want to marry someone who I love, not someone who others think will do a good job or is convenient. "

Adam paused knowing why he was hesitating, but he forced himself to say the next part anyways. "You never know the person that is picked might be the one."

Meg smiled slightly, "I know that is how your parents came together but they had these bracelets to get to know each other before they got married. And if after a year they still didn't get along they would have canceled the wedding. It is a different story than being forced to marry someone who you don't know."

"You were paying attention when my father explained it." Adam smirked.

Meg laughed, "Did you think I would forget or something?"

"Well, we were fighting a war at the time, you had other things on your mind."

"That is true, but I remember all those talks with your dad, he is an interesting man. I can see where you get a lot of your traits from." Meg said with a smile.

"You're trying to distract me, Meg. You haven't really answered why you want to pick your husband." Adam replied.

Meg grimaced, "I thought I was doing so well too, I can never seem to distract you, Adam." Meg looked over at Adam and held his eyes for a long moment, as if she was deciding to tell him the truth. She looked away down at the ground, "If you could see my parents you would know the answer. My father was forced to marry the Duchess of Silva. She is the Apricot-colored hair with eyes like blue crystal lady, that I have told you about. But she is not my mother. My father was in love with the princess of this country before I came into power. I am the baby of that affair. The Duchess was also pregnant at the same time that the princess was, we were actually born two days apart from each other. The Duchess's baby was born blind, when she found that out she was going to kill the baby. My mother in order to save Leti offered to switch with her. Hence why I was raised with the Duchess and Leti was raised by the princess. When the royal family was killed, everybody thought that Leti would be made the Queen, because they thought that she was the next in the royal family. But she wasn't, I was." Meg stopped talking.

Adam whispered, "Did you know that the Duchess wasn't your real mother?"

"I suspected as I was growing up. But I knew when I was given the crown. The household I grew up in, the marriage of my father and the Duchess was a painful one. I don't want to make myself go through it again, just because everybody wants me to be married." Meg said slowly.

Adam looked at her sadly, she had stretched out and was now looking up at the stars again. "What a pair we make, I had good parents but because of my older brothers and their deaths. I pretended I was stupid and made everybody think that way, so now I am fighting to have them accept me. You didn't have the best of parents, but still have been fighting to be accepted ever since. Yay for us."

Meg started laughing, "I can't believe you just said that. It makes me laugh. The beloved leaders of two countries are rejects in their earlier lives." Meg laughed harder.

Adam joined in, "Can you imagine what the history books a hundred years from now are going to say about us?"

"Probably that we were insane." Meg answered.

The laugher died down as they enjoyed their joke. They sat in a comfortable silence for several moments before Adam spoke, "In my mind, I think you are right about you choosing who you marry. You get a chance to pick someone who is right for you and right for Myrr."

Meg chuckled, "I'm glad you agree with me, it is nice to have someone understand me."

Adam reached over and clasped her hand, "I will always be here for you, I want you to understand that. Always."

Meg squeezed his hand, "I know, and I'll always be there for you too."

They sat there enjoying the silence and the stars again before Meg pointed out a pattern of stars that she thought looked like a bird. Adam laughed and pointed out one he had found.

The next morning Meg was in a much better mood, she didn't think about what had happened to earlier with Cale and she was ready to continue on with the celebration. Over the next few days she enjoyed the rides, the picnics, the games and activities. She continued her nightly activities of joining different groups or people after dinner and getting to know them better. Her favorite place was the piano room playing with Addi. Sometimes Adam joined them. Soon there was only one day left until the masquerade ball. All the girls were twittering about what they were dressing up as and how much they loved their dresses. Meg was not concerned about her dress like the others were, so it was good that her dressmakers were. They had made her stand there for fittings until they were confident that it was a great dress.

The only thing that annoyed her was Malcom. She kept getting reports that he was having meetings with his guards that were staying with here. They never allowed any of her spies to get close enough to know what they were talking about. He was planning something, she knew it but she couldn't prove it. She just had to wait until he made his move and hoped she could combat it.

The night of the masquerade came, Meg had just spent the last two hours getting ready, she was glad that she was now done, even if it was just to get away from zealous servants. She came down the stairs in her dress and saw everybody else walking around excitedly. She looked at all the different costumes and outfits and was glad that she wouldn't stand out. Her dress was a play off her spy background; it was a black dress that had different gems sewn into it. She really liked it and knew she looked good in it. She looked around through all the people trying to find Adam. He wouldn't tell her what his outfit was, no matter how much she asked. She couldn't see him as the page's started going through the crowd telling everyone that they were ready to start the dance and to pair up with their first dance partner.

Meg found Armen and lined up in the front of the line with him. They entered the dance floor and started the first dance. Armen was a great dancer and a good partner. As she danced with him she kept looking around for Adam. She was curious on what he was wearing. The dance ended and she was passed from partner to partner as the night went on. She finally danced with all the men there except for Adam and she was planning on saving his dance for the last dance. Claiming she needed a rest and a drink she out maneuvered men as they tried to claim a second dance. She even worked a little of her spy magic to help back away into the shadows unseen. From there she considered what to do. There were a couple of dances left before the last dance, she decided to slip outside and get some fresh air.

Adam was looking around the dance room trying to find Meg, by his calculations she should have danced with everybody but him. He sipped his punch as he looked around. As he looked around he saw Quinlan and Treyton coming toward him. Adam took a deep breath and prepared himself for the question he knew that they were going to ask.

Quinlan asked, "Meg has seemed to have slipped away, where did she go?"

Adam just at them evenly, "How would I know?"

"You know things about her, like for instance where she would slip off to?"

Adam just shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know where she is."

Treyton smiled oily and replied, "We thought that you would say that so we have a game we would like to play with you. Whoever finds Meg first gets to have the last dance with her."

Adam looked at him and laughed, "Do you really think that Meg would go along with this game?"

"I don't think Meg needs to know. We know that she is planning on dancing the last dance with you," Treyton said, "You would just need to go to bed early and leave one of us to dance the dance."

Adam laughed and shook his head, "You can try to find her if you like but since you haven't found her once through the last two weeks I'm not banking on you now."

Treyton just scowled at him and stalked away, Quinlan followed him. Adam shook his head as they walked off. He began to think about where Meg could be, he could use their link but that would be considered cheating. He thought about his choices, and then headed off to where he thought she was hiding.

Adam walked out to one of the balconies and smiled as he saw Meg's silhouette up against edge of the wall. He smiled, walking up next to her. She looked over at him and smiled. She asked him, "What are you doing out here?"

Adam chuckled, "Treyton and Quinlan just tried to make a deal with me that if they could find you before me, they would get the last dance."

"Really?" Meg asked.

"Yes, so I thought I would find you before they did. Although I know that they wouldn't be able to, they have never been able to find you before." Adam replied thinking to himself that he wouldn't let them have his last dance.

Meg smiled, "I'm glad you care, Adam."

"So are you going to come back before the last dance?" Adam asked.

Meg made a face and replied, "I don't know, I am sick of dancing. And if I go out there again, I'll have to dance with someone."

Adam just shrugged his shoulders and looked out over the gardens. Meg sighed and added, "Do you want me to go back in?"

"I just want my dance." Adam said teasingly.

Meg laughed, "Alright, I'll go back in but just for your dance. I don't want to dance with anybody else but you." She looked back at the direction of the ballroom and added, "When do you think the last dance is?"

Adam shrugged, "We can dance out here, so you don't have to go back."

Meg smiled and nodded her thanks, "Adriana and Simon will take care of the end of the dance. I know that they will see me not coming back as a hope that I like someone."

Adam shook his head, "Your councilors are really pushing you. You know that."

"I know, but I can use it to my advantage. Like I am doing tonight." Meg smirked.

The sounds of a new song came drifting out of the open windows of the ballroom, Adam held out his hand to her. Meg took it and stepped close. She looked up at him as they started the dance and mentioned, "I like your costume, by the way. Although I can't quite place what you are supposed to be."

Adam looked down at his outfit. It was a dark blue and black suit, and replied, "I was told that it was the costume of the trickster Artem. It matches your dress though."

Meg chuckled, "It does, remember we are a great pair."

Adam smiled down softly, "That is right we are a great pair." He paused for a moment while he twirled her and then asked, "So how has your night been?"

With an exaggerated sigh, she replied, "I am glad I am all done with the dancing. I don't think I could have handled it anymore."

"Was it really that bad?" Adam asked.

"Most of the dances were fine, but there were several who pushed their limits. You can probably guess who they were."

"Hmmm," Adam answered as he danced her around the balcony floor, "I can think of a couple names already. What did they do?"

"One of them kept spouting off traits he had, or how much money his family could pay if I married him. A couple of them, tried to do that movement where you readjust your hand and it pushes me closer. Making us dance closer together." She explained.

Thinking about that for a moment, Adam looked down at her with a mischievous twinkle in his eye, "Like this?" He asked as he moved his hand down to her waist and pushed her closer to him.

Giving him a mock scowl, she answered, "Yes, just like that." But she made no effort to pull away.

"How did the dance with Malcom go?" Adam asked.

"Ack…. Just as bad as normal." She growled, "Oh, I hate being around that man. I'll be glad when Armen gets the throne."

They enjoyed dancing in a comfortable silence when Adam came out of his musings, "I can understand why the girls leave Malcom alone, he is just plain nasty. Armen has had a following of girls who are hopeful to marry him. So why have I not had very many girls vying for my hand in marriage?"

Unbidden, Meg remembered what Priya had told her several days ago, "_We all know that he is yours." _She felt her face getting hot and looked away.

She could hear the laughter in his voice when he asked, "What are you blushing about?"

Forcing herself to look back at him, she shrugged her shoulders and said, "I just remembered something."

Adam stopped their dancing, and looked at her seriously, "Does this something concern me?"

Again she forced herself to look at him and stay calm as she shrugged, hoping he wouldn't keep pressing for the answer.

"Oh, now I know it was about me. What was it?" He pressed as he loosened his grip around her waist.

Feeling her face heating up again, she avoided his eyes and shook her head, wondering why she was acting like this.

Keeping one hand on her waist, he brought up his other hand and pulled her chin, so she was facing him again, she caught his eyes and found that she couldn't look away.

"_What are you keeping from me?" His voice called softly in her mind._

"_I don't want to tell." She replied back in the same way._

He leaned forward so he was mere inches away from her face_, "Tell me." His voice commanded in her head._

"_It was just a comment that one of the other ladies made while we were at that get-together the other day." She explained evasively._

"_If it was just a comment, then surely you can tell me." He pressed._

She paused for what seemed like eternity, acutely aware of how close his face was to her, of his hands still on her face and waist. She couldn't seem to think of anything else, it was all muddled, and when she finally answered she spoke out loud in a whisper.

"She said that they knew you were mine."

If the pause before seemed like an eternity, the pause he gave now seemed even longer. He seemed to be searching her eyes for something, he finally leaned forward even more and just before his lips touched hers, she heard in her mind, _"I am yours."_

They slowly parted and this time Adam blushed, he then panicked, awkwardly he bowed to her and bid her a good night before turning around and escaping to his room.

That night was one of the few times that Meg had regretted having the bracelet on her. She was afraid to let Adam hear what was on her mind and she could feel that he was the same way. Keeping a strong barrier between them so he wouldn't know how she paced for what seemed to be hours for her, thinking how his touch had so easily frayed her thoughts, how she kept returning to that kiss and how she wished he hadn't panicked and that maybe they could shared some more kisses before the night was over. What she didn't know is that he was thinking the same thing she was.

The next morning, Meg woke up early. She was confused about what happened the night before. She was not quite sure about her feelings for Adam, even if she really enjoyed kissing him. She needed to clear her head. She quickly put on one of her riding outfits and went down to the stable to grab a horse. Even though it was early there was some movement in the stable, some of the guests were planning on leaving tomorrow and everyone was trying to get early start. She grabbed her horse, and went out riding.

She was out riding for a couple of hours when she heard Adam's frantic call. "_Meg! Marin's missing! I don't know where she is! Sam told me that Malcom and his guards left this morning. I think they took her. Where are you?"_

* * *

Author's note- hehe how's that for a cliffhanger?


	30. Chapter 30

Chapter 30

"_Where are you?" Adam's frantic call came through her head._

"_I am out in the forest taking a ride." Meg explained. "Do you know what direction the Masonites went?"_

"_No, nobody saw them leave, not even Armen." Adam said quickly._

"_Okay, I am going to check out here and see if I can find them. Send out search parties and see if we can find them that way." Meg tried to say calmly._

"_We can't…"_

"_Why not?" Meg asked._

"_They have sabotaged the saddles, we can't send out search parties." Adam said frantically._

"_My map from the war is in the war room, go to it and write instructions to the other companies and have them send out search parties. Although they might be too far away. Actually have Simon handle that ,then he can watch it for any replies. I have extra saddles in the back room of the stable. If you can't find them have Sam show you where they are. I don't have many but it should be enough for one search party." Meg said quickly, her mind racing with possibilities. _

"_Okay, thanks Meg." Adam said thankfully as he closed the connection._

Meg sat for a moment thinking before she took a deep breath and stood up in the stirrup. She cleared her mind and sent out a location spell as far as she could. She concentrated on the results as they came in. She had a party to the north of her traveling pretty fast, and a party to the south traveling slowly. Since Mason was to the north she sat back down on her horse and headed as fast she was able cross country towards them. She sent this information back to Adam and told him in which to send the search party.

As she traveled she kept up her location spell keeping track of the party. When she got closer she began to see that there was a set of guards ahead and behind them. She decided to go after the guards first. If she pushed her horse hard she should be able to catch up to the guards in the back.

She started approaching the back guards as they stopped at a stream to give their horses a drink. She had picked up a tree branch and held it to the side of her so they couldn't see it. As she approached they stood up and looked very intimidating. She smiled a relived smile and asked, "Can my horse get a drink from the stream? Something spooked him and he ran, he needs a drink and some rest before I can head back to the village."

The four guards looked at each other and shrugged, Meg could tell that they were thinking 'what harm could come from a single girl.' One finally said, "Go right ahead. We were just resting our horses as well before we continued on our way."

Meg swiftly dismounted and led her horse over to the river by where two of the guards were standing. In one quick movement she hit one on the back of the head and got the other on the face with her branch knocking them effectively out. The other two headed towards her. She bent down and drew a sword from one of the unconscious men. The remaining two men laughed at her with a sword. Meg just beckoned them to come. They went down almost just as fast as the other two went. Meg quickly cleaned the blade and hopped on her horse. Before going she made sure where the other two groups were. Meg remembered where she was and how the road turned on itself to go around a hill, she led her horse back into the forest to get ahead of the front guards at the turn in the road. As she went through she sent a message back to Adam how she left him a present and he better be hurrying.

Meg made it to the turn in the road about five minutes before the front guards did. She left her horse in the middle of the road and climbed up a tree. She waited for the three guards to pause in front of the horse before she jumped out of the tree and took down one of the guards of his horse. The other two were thrown from their horses by their surprise. She quickly took down the two remaining guards and got them off the road as fast as she could. She then scanned to see how long it would take for the main group to get to her. Meg was worried about how to take on Malcom. It all depended on where Marin was. If she was riding her own horse it would be a lot easier to free her, but if she was riding with someone else, Meg would have to be more careful. Meg had to plan for the more difficult one and mounted her horse again and waited in the middle of the road for them to approach.

It seemed to take forever for Malcom to approach as she waited. They finally caught her eye as they came around the turn of the bend. Meg could tell that Malcom recognized her and was not happy that she was there. She also saw that Marin was riding in front of Malcom, Meg was sure she wasn't going to like the outcome of this discussion.

"So you found out." Malcom started off the conversation as he stopped in front of her with his three guards behind him.

"I did, and I have to say that I am very disappointed in you Malcom, kidnapping Marin. I thought for sure you would go after me." Meg replied.

Malcom sneered at her, "You are a difficult person to subdue, Meg. As Cale found out."

Meg smiled at that, "I am, aren't I. So you decided to be a coward and go after someone who wasn't as difficult."

"I am not a coward." Malcom spited back. "It was a way to get you alone in front of me, wasn't it."

Meg raised an eyebrow, "Does that mean you're going to let her go now?"

"No," Malcom laughed, "Not unless you're willing to make a swap."

"What kind of a swap?" Meg asked although she already knew what he was going to ask for.

"You for her."

Meg studied his face trying to determine how serious he was. He was serious. She asked Adam in her mind, _"How far are you from me?"_

"_About an hour. You and that idiot got a good distance away from the castle before we got out."_

Meg knew she couldn't distract Malcom for an hour until Adam showed up and she couldn't free Marin by herself not with her sitting in front of Malcom like she was. Meg knew what she should do, she could escape easier than Marin could and had more experience in this matter but how did she know that Malcom would let Marin go.

"How do I know that you will let Marin go?" Meg asked.

"I give you my word." Malcom responded.

Meg snorted, "Like I would believe that."

Malcom calmly replied, "Okay then, I won't give you my word, I'll just take you then."

Meg saw a moment to late a dart being blown out of a tube, raised her hand and tried to move before it hit her. It hit her arm as she moved the horse out of the way. She quickly pulled it out and saw things begin to darken as she fell off her horse.

As Meg began to come back around, she cursed herself for not paying more attention to what the guards where doing. She made herself stay limp as she tried to guess where she was. Through the slit of her eyes she saw they were still traveling by the same road that she had been captured on, there were still only three guards plus Malcom. She could tell she was traveling with one of the guards because of the tight grip around her waist. She called out to Adam who cursed her just as badly as she cursed herself earlier.

"_I know Adam it was stupid. But I thought that it could work. I was stupid not to pay attention to what the guards were doing. I'm sorry, now you have to save both Marin and me." Meg replied sorrowfully._

_Adam took a deep breath, "I'm sorry I yelled at you, we need to work together at this. Maybe there is a way that you can escape before you get to the border."_

_Meg smiled inwardly, "I'll try my best. How far are you behind me?"_

"_Still about an hour. They are moving fast."_

"_Okay, I'll keep you up to date if I think of anything."_

Meg slowly opened her eyes and tried to move as if she was just waking up. She found out that her hands had been tied to the saddle horn. So there was no chance of just jumping off.

"My Prince, She is waking up." Said the guard that was holding her.

She saw Malcom slow down and turn his horse around. He was carrying a now awake Marin. He looked at her and laughed. "I finally out thought you. I finally got you at your own game."

Meg just grimaced, "You don't have to shout it though. Although on the other hand maybe you should continue shouting maybe someone will hear it and come investigate and notice you are taking off with their Queen. Now that would be funny." Meg smiled at that thought.

Malcom glared at her and turned his horse but not before Meg could give the frightened Marin a quick wink. As they rode on Meg looked around trying to remember anything she could about this area that could be of use to her. After about an hour of riding she remembered a small spy hole that was located near the road about two hours ahead of them. If they could get into that hole Malcom and his lugs wouldn't be able to find them before Adam could show up. Now how to create a diversion?

As she went through possible ideas for a diversion she tried to cast a couple of location spells to see if there was anybody around. She couldn't do it. Her magic was just out of her reach. She made a face as she realized that they must have some magic dampener spells on her. She cursed Malcom, and the fact that he seemed to have thought of everything. As they got closer she had an idea that she thought might work.

When they were just around the corner from the spy hole, Meg started to complain. "Hey, Malcom. At least when you were a captive with us we fed you. We haven't stopped all day, and we haven't had lunch. Stop now! Or I'll have to do something drastic."

Malcom stopped and turned around again. "Something drastic? How in the world can you do something drastic? We have you tied up and your magic is not available." He stopped when he saw the smile and the determination in her eyes. He knew that she couldn't do anything so why was he getting the feeling that she could. He then smiled, "You're right. Where are my manner's? The horses do need a quick break anyways."

They stopped just beyond her spy hole. Meg was feeling hopeful, the opening was out of sight so they wouldn't see anybody get into it. Now all she had to do was get by Marin. Meg was lifted off the saddle and dumped with her back to Marin's and handed some bread to eat. Meg pressed her back against Marin's and hoped she could get enough magic to pass a message. _"Marin?" She called quickly, when Meg felt Marin's response she continued, "Don't talk, I can't keep this up for long. On the other side of that tree is a spy hole." She then projected the image of the hole and how to get into it. "I am going to create a diversion, don't look back and don't try to help me, just run for that hole. Do you understand?" Meg waited for Marin's yes before breaking contact. _

Meg was sweating and shaking as she stopped the contact. That had taken a lot out of her, and one of the guards noticed. He came up to her and asked, "What's wrong with you? Why are you shaking?"

Malcom turned around from the other guard to see what was going on, just as he did Meg kicked the guard in the stomach and as she stood up grabbed his head and rammed it into her knee. She then went immediately for the next guard. She was causing such a ruckus that nobody saw Marin slipping through the trees and disappear. Meg had taken care of two of the guards and tried to run away herself before Malcom threw a lightening charm at her. The charm hit her shoulder and sent a shock through her body. She sank to the ground in pain. Meg tried to get up again and run but it was too late the last guard had her. Malcom looked at her surprised before asking, "Why did you try and escape? You must have known it was useless, four against one."

Meg looked at him with hate in her eyes, "I had to try, now didn't I?"

Malcom shook his head and looked around at the two guards. One was laying on the ground knocked out, the other one was stumbling to stand up.

Meg added, "And I almost did escape, didn't I?"

Malcom looked at her this time with hate in his eyes, "I have to say it was a nice try but you didn't have a chance to actually escape."

Meg smiled at him, knowing Marin was safe now, "What if I wasn't trying to escape?"

Malcom looked at her confused before looking around frantically, "Where is the Tigree Princess?" He yelled. He looked back at Meg and asked her, "Where is she?"

Meg shrugged her shoulders before commenting, "Somewhere else apparently."

Malcom scowled at her and slapped her face, "I will only ask one more time, Where is she?"

Meg looked back up at him and responded, "You're not very scary when you're mad, no wonder you lost the war."

Malcom reached in his pocket still glaring at her and pulled out another lightening charm. As he held it above her chest he asked again, "Where is she?"

Meg looked at him steely, "I don't know." She then was hit with a more powerful shock than the one before, and as she collapsed into darkness for the second time that day she smiled up at the scowling Malcom and said, "If you stick around to find her, Adam will find you."


	31. Chapter 31

Chapter 31

When Meg woke up again she cursed Malcom because she knew the way things were going this was going to happen a lot. She was on a horse again, and in front of somebody again. She thought about her situation, she now didn't have to worry about Marin and what Malcom might do to Marin to make Meg do something. That part was good. They were also a good two days away from the border, there was a chance that she might be found or she could get away before they crossed. That was good as well. The bad part is now that she almost escaped once they would guard her more heavily and her magic was still being blocked.

"_Meg, you're finally awake." Adam's voice rang in her head._

_Meg just replied, "Yes I am… with a really bad headache, Did you find Marin?"_

"_Yes, she was right where you said she be. She is mad at you that you didn't escape though." _

"_Tell her I'm sorry. It seems like the only way at the time." Meg replied._

"_So now how you going to escape?" Adam asked._

"_I don't know. Have you written and gotten in contact with the sentries at the border?" Meg asked._

"_I have written the news on the maps. Tanget has written back and is sending out messengers to his border patrols. He wrote that it would take a while though, he doesn't know if he can reach the ones that you might be traveling by. Iseling hasn't checked his map yet, because I haven't heard anything from him. Which is too bad because he is closer." Adam said._

"_Thanks, I will try to keep you informed on where we are." _Meg finished as she opened her eyes and saw that is was dark. She looked around and noticed that they left behind the guard she knocked out. There is another good point Meg thought, at least the odds are now only three against one. She also noticed that the person behind her was Malcom.

He must have noticed that she recognized who her was because he whispered in her ear, "Yes, I am holding you now because you are not going to escape from me."

Meg just ignored him because she was going to escape from him and there was nothing that he could do about it. All she had to do was figure out how.

Meg would have to say it was finally around midnight when they stopped to get some rest. She was dragged down from the saddle and roughly tied to a tree to prevent any escapes. They left her hands tied together in front of her. She sat cross-legged and while pretending to be asleep searched the bottom of her boot for her little knife that was hidden there. She found it and slowly pulled it out, having to stop now and then when the guard on duty came close. She started to saw through the rope tying her hands knowing it would take several nights to do it with this tiny knife and how slow her movement had to be. Finally when she got so tired she couldn't work anymore, she slipped the knife back to its spot and went to sleep.

She was woken about an hour before dawn. Shoved back in the saddle and given a chunk of bread and cheese for breakfast. The three men were grim and didn't talk as they continued their ride back to their country.

When they stopped in the late afternoon for dinner, She saw Malcom looking at her interested.

She glared at him, making him smile. "You should get used to me looking at you. As when we get back home we will be wed."

Huffing at him, she turned her head away and commented, "You won't get that far."

She heard him walk towards her until he was close enough she could feel his breath on her cheek. "You are still so hopeful of a rescue. You should just give up hope and stop fighting." He said as he stroked her cheek with a finger. "I don't like my women so spirited."

She stepped back and snapped at him, "I bet you don't. But don't worry I am not going to be one of your women."

Narrowing his eyes he grabbed her arm and spat back, "Oh, you will. You don't have a chance of escaping." She tried to pull her arm from his hold but his grip was too strong. He sneered at her and pulled her towards him. She fought him but it was in vain as he was stronger than her. Meg found herself in his arms and again tried to push away. His arms were steel around her, and he leaned in to kiss her. Turning her head, his lips instead went to her cheek. She could feel him smiling as he brushed kisses across her cheek and down her neck.

Disgust and anger burning through her she pushed away from him, this time escaping his hold. Moving away from his leer, she sought to keep calm as she said, "Let's stay here and talk about it, giving the rescue parties time to catch up." He quickly reached over and grabbed her again, dragging her over to the horses and threw her up on his, before climbing on behind her. Whispering in her ear she heard him say, "You won't be so smug when we cross the border tomorrow."

"_That pompous fool!" Adam spat disgusted in her head._

"_I know," she sent back. "What do you hear about a rescue?"_

"_If what you say is true and he will be traveling through the forest, and not the road, Tangent will not be able to stop you from crossing the border, he isn't close enough. Can you try and stall him more?" Adam answered._

"_I don't think so, every time that I try he either hits me in some fashion or he starts looking at me like he isn't going to wait for a wedding. That part scares me, Adam." She admitted._

_For a moment she could feel his anger rolling off of him as he heard that comment , before he controlled it and whispered back, "That part scares me too. Be careful, Meg."_

"_I will be."_

The next few days were tiring, not stopping until late, spending a few hours sawing at a rope, being woken up at an early hour and spending the day riding. At least they had slowed down, the horses couldn't take the pace and Malcom was feeling confident that he had a good strong lead on Adam. Meg over the last few days had enjoyed being a pain to Malcom. She needled him whenever she could, and he would sometimes let his anger get the best of him and would resort to some kind of violence. Meg felt that the pain at least told her she was alive and kept her will to escape strong.

Finally after four days of traveling with Malcom and his crew she finally broke through the rope tying her hands. She was still tied to the tree for the night but she had a plan for that. She needed to escape now, they had already crossed the border she was two days into Mason already. She didn't want to go any farther past the border than necessary. Adam was still on their tale following the directions Meg passed on to him but he wasn't having much luck catching up to them.

At the border he had met up with Tanget and his patrols. Most of them were left to guard Marin, (or actually make sure she stayed at the inn and didn't try to follow.) Adam, Tanget, and three guards followed her into Mason.

Meg told Adam about two spies that lived in the village that Malcom had passed about a day from the border. They were sisters who worked as Mages, She convinced Adam to leave the three guards there, to gather supplies for the trip back. The guards could inform the sisters of what was happening and get word out to other spies in the capital and back to Sam.

When morning came and she heard everybody waking up, Meg readied herself. All the times past when they woke her up she was groggy and hard to wake up. The guard that woke her up was not ready for her to jump up and slam him into the tree.

After slamming the stupid guard into the tree, Meg started running. She didn't stop for anything, but just concentrated on getting as far away as she could. She had the element of surprise on her side, but she didn't know the terrain very well. All she knew was that she needed to get to the river. The river passed the village where Adam had left the guards. It would be a guide back. Adam and Tanget were now following the river to get to her, she was hoping that she would meet him along the way.

"_Adam! I am heading towards the river, are you still by it?" She asked him as she darted in-between trees._

"_I have been following a trail that runs along it. So yes I am." Adam replied._

"_Great, hopefully I meet up with you if I am not caught first."_

"_Be careful Meg." Adam responded._

Meg heard the crashing of her pursuers behind her and quickened her pace. While she was sure under normal circumstances she could beat them in a foot race, all that had happened in the last four days had left her weak and not able to run as fast.

She heard the sounds of the river coming up and sprinted for it. She came to a stop as she realized the river was a good ten foot drop from where she was standing. She paused as she looked around, she could try and go by the side of the river but she knew they would catch her before she got very far. She took a quick look behind her and saw Malcom coming right towards her, she took a deep breath and jumped into the river.

The current of the river took her swiftly away from where Malcom was cursing her and closer to where Adam was. Meg fought to keep her head above the water as she was carried down the river. She was getting weaker as she traveled farther, she started to try and swim over to the side. As she got closer to the bank, she felt a swift current push her faster than she could manage and she hit her head on a rock. Desperately trying to get to the bank before she lost consciousness, she swam for the bank. Just as her knees hit the rocky shore she collapsed into the shallow water.

* * *

Adam was at his wits end. He had been following Meg for the last four days, he had followed her direction to leave the guards at the two Mages house, and now he and Tanget were following the river to get to her. He was traveling on a horse as tired as he was when he heard her call,

"_Adam! I am heading towards the river, are you still by it?" _

_He quickly replied, "I have been following a trail that runs along it. So yes I am." _

"_Great, hopefully I meet up with you if I am not caught first." He heard her panting as she said that. He was worried that she wouldn't make it._

"_Be careful Meg." Adam responded. _He kept track of her as she ran through the forest. He saw her as she paused before the river and saw her jump into it. He urged his tired horse forward leave Tanget surprised and trying to keep up with him.

Adam felt her bump her head and try to make it to shore, he was close to her. He jumped off the horse and led the horse through the trees until he hit the bank. He could see Meg laying in the water just ahead of him. He dropped the lead to his horse and ran over to her, dragging her out of the water. His heart jumped to his throat, as he noticed that she wasn't breathing. Pooling his healing magic into his hands he poured it into her body as he brought his mouth to hers, trying to get her breathing again. After giving her several breathes she finally coughed up water and began breathing by herself again.

Adam sat there for a few moments with her in his arms before Tanget finally caught up to him. "Adam?" He called, searching the bushes.

"Over here, I have her." He called back.

"Good, How is she?" Tangent asked as he finally cleared the bush and saw Meg in his arms.

"Not good, she wasn't breathing when I found her, she is now but we need to get her back to the sisters' house as quickly as we can." Saying that he stood up and carried her over to his horse. Tanget helped get her on Adam's horse before they both turned their horses and began heading down the trail back to the sisters' house. He was worried, he was tired, the horse was tired, it would take almost until nightfall to get back to the Mages house if he didn't stop. Switching Meg from horse to horse, they went as quickly as they could.

It was past nightfall when they finally reached the Sisters' house, he was leading the horse and Tanget was on the other one holding Meg. As they approached the house a short little lady came bursting out of the house.

"Oh my, you finally made it. But you are practically ready to collapse yourself. And there is Meg on the horse. Steven, my dear," She turned around and said, "Come take care of the horse, while the man takes her into the house."

Adam was confused as the guard called Captain Davis came out and took the horse from him allowing him to receive Meg from Tanget. He trudged her into the house, barely putting one foot in front of the other. The little lady was showing him a bed her could put Meg onto. After putting Meg on the bed he collapsed in a corner not able to keep his eyes open for any longer.

When Adam opened his eyes again he was still sitting in the corner he had collapsed in earlier. The room didn't have any windows so he couldn't tell if it was night or day. He looked nervously over at the bed where Meg was. In the candle light she looked pale. He slowly stood up stretching out all the cramps caused from sleeping in a corner. He walked over to her, surprised to see all the bruises on her face. Next time he saw Malcom he was sure he was going to kill him.

Adam went out the open door where the little lady was sitting on a chair knitting.

She looked up and smiled. "You finally awake, you slept the whole night and it is almost afternoon now."

Adam looked out the window to see the sun was up and remarked, "Yesterday's ride was a long one, I guess."

She looked up at him and was about to reply when an identical little lady walked in from outside, saying, "The horses looks like they have been here for at least week, I have to say I amaze myself sometimes." She looked over at the baffled Adam and said, "I see the fine young man is finally awake. Your friends will be so happy. They were quite worried about you."

Adam just looked at both of them and stuttered out, "T…There Th…ere are two of you."

They both smiled up at him and answered together, "Yes, we are twins. I am called Farah and she is called Celeste."

Adam just looked at both of them confused, when Tanget walked in the door. "Don't worry, Adam just called them what you want they will answer to both."

Farah\Celeste turned around and said, "Ah Mark, see we told you that he was alright, just tired."

Adam looked at Tanget confused and asked him, "Mark? Why do they call you Mark?"

Tanget just shrugged and answered, "They say it is for undercover. They have been telling everyone I am their nephew Mark who has dropped by for a visit, and those three are my companions." He pointed into the kitchen where the three guards were, and dropped his voice and added, "I frankly think they are a little crazy."

Adam stood there for a few moments taking it all in, before asking, "How is Meg doing?"

The Farah/Celeste sitting on the chair looked up at him and replied, "She is fighting, that is all I can tell you. She hit her head pretty hard, I have healed her as much as I dare to at the moment. She has a lot of magic dampening spells in her at the moment. I am afraid if I do too much at one time I may make things worse. Would you like some lunch now, honey. It is important you eat."

Adam looked at her, beginning to think Tanget was right and they were a little crazy. He allowed himself to be brought into the kitchen and ate lunch with them.

As night approached Adam found himself sitting in a chair by Meg's bed, he couldn't get himself to leave. He looked over at her and thought of all the things he wish he could say to her, he couldn't even reach her through the bracelet's magic. He noticed one of the little lady's had come in, she looked at him and remarked, "It is crazy how we take for granted what is always there but as soon as it is gone we miss it terribly."

Adam looked at her surprised and answered, "Yes it is. I have been wondering the last few days when she became so important to me. When I couldn't make it through the day without at least talking to her." Adam paused for moment before looking up at Farah/Celeste and asked, "She will be alright, won't she?"

Farah/Celeste smiled, "Yes, I am sure she will be alright. She has always had this amazing fighting spirit. That is why my sister and I decided to help her years ago when she asked us to become spies here. We owe her a lot we won't let her die."

Adam was reassured by this and looked back over at Meg. Tanget came running in through the other room, "Your sister says that there is a group of men coming down the road and wants Meg and Adam to hide just in case."

Farah/Celeste jumped up and ran over to the bookcase and pushed it to the side revealing a hole into the ground. She told Adam to grab Meg and for both of them to go into the hole. Adam gently picked up Meg and slowly climbed down into the hole. A lantern was passed down to him and then he saw the bookcase close over the opening. He looked around the room and saw a bed which he set Meg down on.

He tucked in Meg and looked around for a chair to sit in. Not seeing one he settled down on the floor. He then slowly fell asleep.

He was awakened by somebody moving besides him. He groggily opened his eyes to see Meg weakly leaning over the bed smiling at him. He smiled up at her and said, "You're awake."

Meg disappeared, and Adam sat up to see her laying back down on the bed. He looked over at her and whispered, "Do you know where you are?"

Meg nodded, "This is the sisters' hidey hole they have. I once had to spend three days down here once waiting for something or other. I can't quite remember right now. How long have we been down here?"

Adam shrugged, "I don't know, I fell asleep. Probably a couple of hours."

Meg closed her eyes, "Enough time for another nap then. I bet they won't be able to get us for a while."

Adam watched her fall back asleep having really no words to the joy that he felt that she was awake.


	32. Chapter 32

Chapter 32

Meg woke up in the dark the lamp had gone out while they had been sleeping. She slowly sat up and reached over to a table next to the bed and felt around for a few seconds before her hand found something smooth and round. She picked it up and blew some breath at it and watched as the small stone began to shine a tiny pale light. She had seen these stones several times but never ceased to be amazed by them.

The small light didn't even reach the walls of the room, but it shone enough for Meg to see Adam sleeping on the floor. She watched him for a few moments as she had a flashback of one of the nights she had spent in Malcom's care.

_They had just stopped for the night. It was the first night they had spent in Mason. Malcom was convinced that he had won and wasn't taking any of her attempts to throw him off lightly. Meg's head felt like it was going to explode from a hit she had taken earlier that afternoon. She just sat there tied to her tree waiting for them to fall asleep so she could continue working on the rope. _

_Meg kept looking up at the sky and watched the stars twinkle innocently at her as she tried not to think about what would happen if she didn't escape. She was surprised by the fact she kept thinking of Adam and the last time she had seen him, how they had been dancing, he was holding her close, how they had kissed. She remembered those words, _"I am yours."_ That had whispered so softly in her head. Then he had panicked and left. The memory grew to be was so powerful she found herself fighting not to start crying. She couldn't show that to Malcom, she needed to stay strong in order to escape. She pushed her thoughts, the unsaid words that she wished she had told him earlier, to the back of her head and locked them away. Promising herself that she would make up for it when she was free._

She was now free and found herself looking at the man that was causing all these feelings. She smiled as she remembered how he had looked at her when she woke him up last. When had he become so important to her? She thought back, Had it been during the weeks of the celebration? No, before then. She looked down at her bandaged wrists, thinking… It had to have been all the communication that they had during the war. She found herself thinking about all of the conversations, and plans that they had during that time. She felt herself pause and told herself to be realistic. It started before that, if she didn't trust him she would have never allowed him to put the bracelet on her. It happened during the peace treaty. She thought again about the night before her capture and how he had confirmed that he felt the same way. They hadn't talked about any of that, given the circumstances of the last week. What was going to happen when he needed to go back to Tigree. What would she do?

Meg looked at Adam's sleeping form again and resisted the urge to wake him up. What would she say to him once she did? That she wouldn't let him go back? … No she couldn't do that. Maybe she could go with him… What would Myrr do then?

As she was thinking she didn't notice that Adam had woken up and was watching her. "What are you thinking about, Meg?" Adam spoke quietly, scaring Meg.

She looked at him with a surprised look, "I was thinking about some…stuff…" she fumbled.

"Some stuff? You're usually more specific than that." Adam joked.

Meg looked away, biting her lip wondering what to say. Adam came and sat on the bed next to her and gently pulled her chin around so she was facing him, "What is the matter, Meg?" he asked concerned.

Meg made an attempt to smile up at him, "I was thinking about the night of the ball, the night before this whole mess happened." She looked up into his searching hazel eyes as he listened to her.

Smiling his crooked smile he replied, "I have thought about that night several times. I seemed to remember things going well until a certain young man panicked about a kiss and left before he should have. What can this young man do to make up such a mistake? Do you have an idea?"

That caused Meg to chuckle, "Why the only thing I can think of is to start where he left off."

"I was hoping you would say that," He murmured as he leaned in and kissed her. It wasn't a quick kiss either, both of them seemed to want to convey their pent-up feelings, their frustrations of the last few days, in a single kiss.

When they finally broke apart they were both smiling widely. Adam leaned his head in so both of their foreheads were touching before remarking, "Hopefully that makes up for the last time."

Meg's response was just to cuddle in for a hug, Adam held her as he settled his back against the wall.

After Tanget had come and told Adam that he and Meg needed to get below he was told by one of the sisters to stand still as they put a spell on him that changed his hair color to blonde. Tanget was then directed to go start chopping firewood with Captain Davis. The other two guards were shooed off to the horse stables.

From this vantage point Tanget was able to see Malcom and his goons come riding up. Both he and the Captain forced themselves to keep working and to act like they had never met these men before. They watched as the men dismounted and started walking up the path to the house.

One of the sisters came out and greeted them friendly and asked if she could help them in anyway.

"Yes," Malcom started, "One of my men told me that you will trade horses with travelers. Can you trade with us?"

The sister smiled and called into the house, "Farah, Did you hear we have company?"

Farah came out smiling, "I see that sister, Do you think that they want some dinner?"

"All traveler's want some dinner, especially when we make it." Both of them laughed at this comment before Celeste continued. "Hum, what were we planning on making? I remember now, Beef stew. I know we have the enough for them. This is excellent, I love company."

Farah opened her mouth to say something but Malcom beat her to it, "We just want to trade horses, if we could."

Farah answered, "I can't believe you don't want to have some hot stew, can you believe it sister?"

"No, I can't. I believe the fatigue is getting to them, we must get some food into them as soon as we can."

"Come in, Come in. We will have you full and ready to go as quick as I can say…. What do I usually say for that, Sister?"

"I can't remember, I am not the one who says it. You are."

"But you are the one who hears me say it,"

"I don't always pay attention to you, Sister. You talk too much."

"I do not, You are the one who talks too much." Their voices faded out as they went into the house arguing. One of the men turned to Tanget and asked, "Are they always like that?"

He nodded quickly, "Yes, they love to squabble with each other. You might as well come in and eat while I prepare your horses." He showed them into the house and walked out, wondering if any of them would recognize him.

He led their horses to the back and shifted their saddles to some fresh horses. "Are we really going to let them leave?" One of his men asked him as they watched him saddle the horses. "They did kidnap our Queen."

Tanget thought about it for a moment and then nodded, "We are in Mason, think of the trouble that we could make for her, if we caused a war by killing a prince on their soil. Let's leave it for the diplomats to figure it out." He went back to saddling the horses, before he stopped again and grinned. "But that doesn't mean we can't make life a little difficult for them." Then men looked at him confused for a moment before cracking into huge grins themselves.

When he finally came back into the house, they were ready to be off. Tanget could tell that Malcom was ready to lose his temper. But he didn't know how to enter in their conversation.

"I do not think that I talk too much, What do you think, my child?" One of the sisters' said as she turned and asked him.

Tanget said politely, "I think our guests would like to be on their way now that the horses are ready."

"Oh, yes. Thank you. I forgot these men are in a hurry and need to be moving on. Here we go, let's get back outside so we can get you on your way."

Tanget stayed inside as the two sisters argued the men outside and to the new horses. Then listened to them squabble all the way back into the house. When they didn't stop, he opened his mouth to tell them to, but was stopped with a hand, shown that they needed to check for listening spells before they dropped their acting.

They then spent the rest of the night listening to the two sisters arguing about nothing and everything at the same time.

When he woke up the next morning, Meg and Adam had been brought back up from the hidden room. Meg didn't look that well, she walked around slowly as if she was very sore. There was also all those awful bruises on her face. Tanget was surprised because the two sisters were talking normally to her. Meg kept asking them all these confusing questions about what was going on here and there. What messages had they received from so and so. And they answered without any of the riddles that they usually gave him. He could also tell that Meg wanted to get out of there and back to Myrr. But both of the sisters and Adam were being very firm and were going to wait a few days.


	33. Chapter 33

Chapter 33

Meg had finally convinced them to leave two days later. Concerned for her health along the trip, the twins decided to go with them bringing the number of people that they had to get back over the border up to eight. They decided to retrace their steps and leave the Mason the same way they had entered. Everyone was on guard as they traveled, thinking for sure that Malcom would have placed guards on it to make sure that Meg didn't escape that way, But the attack never came, they crossed the border and made their way to the inn where they had left Marin and the remaining guards.

After greeting everybody and having dinner, the five men that had crossed the border told the others of their adventure while Meg was snagged by Marin and dragged into the next room.

Meg smiled at her and asked looking out the window, "You came to ask me about your escape, haven't you?"

Marin looked at her surprised, "How did you know?"

"Adam mentioned it while we were on the road that you weren't very happy about it." Meg mentioned. "And I thought that you would bring it up with me, when you could."

Marin glared at Meg, who finally looked over at her. Marin dropped her gaze when she looked at her bruised face. Meg reached over and forced her to look at her, "This is not your fault." Meg stated. "I look this way because that stupid idiot can't keep his temper and the fact that he is smart enough to put magic dampener spells on me to keep me from escaping. And that those spells are making healing very difficult. This is not your fault."

Marin looked up at her, tears threatening to break out. "Yes, it is. Why didn't you escape? You were looking out for me. Why?"

Meg looked back out the window before replying, "Yes, I was looking out for you, but I also knew that two people escaping at the same time was not going to happen, I needed you safe in order for me to escape. I know that is a mixed up logic but that is the way I took it and the way I made my decision. Don't worry about it. It was not your fault." Meg quickly turned around and looked toward the kitchen. Marin followed her gaze and saw Adam leaning against the door, smirking at them.

Marin and Meg both asked, "What?"

He just laughed and motioning to Meg said, "Meg, we need to map our route back to Myrr. The guards have a map, and information for us on the table to look at."

Meg smiled as she slowly stood up and made her way into the kitchen leaving Marin looking after them. She looked down feeling left out, when one of the twins came out and sat next to her saying, "I had a hard time when my sister fell in love to."

Marin looked over at her surprised. "But I thought that neither one of you were married."

Celeste looked down and whispered, "But Farah once was. When we were younger we were never apart. We were the biggest jokers and everybody assumed we were one person. We were about the same age that Meg is when Farah fell in love with a wonderful guy. I found myself spending more and more time alone. I decided in retaliation to go to school and perfect my healing talent and strengthen my other magic skills. It hurt that Farah was picking him over me. So I ran away to school. I came home only for their wedding and I had just graduated when I received notice that her husband had been killed. I came home to Farah not wanting to live. Thom had been killed trying to protect someone from a Masonite soldier. Our own country's soldiers had killed him. I tried my best to pull her out of her depression but it didn't work. It was at this time a little girl came into our town and started asking questions. She was hardly any older than 11, but she was full of confidence and life." Seeing Marin's question in her eyes she smiled and answered it, "Yes, this little girl was Meg. While she was in town she heard about Thom's death and she approached us to become spies for her and Myrr. Farah turned her down. And I thought that it was the end." Celeste sighed as she gazed out the window. "But Meg had other plans, She showed up every day for the next month. She would talk to Farah or help do chores around the house and start doing little spy things like sneaking around or pretending to be someone else. Farah started to come out of her shell and talk to her and therefore talk to me. In the end we agreed to become Meg's spies and have been ever since." Celeste turned her gaze back to Marin and continued, "I am not just telling you this because Meg is an amazing person but because you cannot run away from the fact that we all grow up and fall in love. You need to let your brother go so he can be happy but also so you can be happy as well." Celeste finished.

Marin nodded, she knew that Celeste was right, she needed to get past this. She looked toward the kitchen to where Meg and Adam were sitting at the table. Adam had his arm around her waist and was holding her tightly to him as they talked about the upcoming trip.

The trip back to the castle was slow, there were too many guards for her to convince that they needed to go faster. They were all being over-protective of her. It gave her too much time to think about what would happen once they got back. Not only would everybody at the castle treat her as an invalid incapable of doing anything, but she knew that Adam and Marin would have to return home soon and that made her sad.

They only had about two hours left before they arrived at the castle. Meg wanted to continue on and get there that night but Adam didn't think she was up to the final push.

"Adam, We are almost there. We could sleep in a real bed and not have to worry about breakfast. That would be a big relief for me."

"You're looking rather pale right now, I don't want to risk your health." Adam shot back.

Meg rolled her eyes, "I'll be fine, Adam. Let's just continue."

Adam looked at her for several moments before commenting, "Fine, we will continue on but you ride with me." He stopped her interruption with his hand and continued. "We will switch from your horse to mine when they get tired. But riding with me should keep you from getting overtired."

Meg could tell that he was serious and sighed before agreeing. Marin shook her head at them for having such a stupid fight as she mounted her own horse.

Meg swung herself up on Adam's horse followed by Adam. He twisted one arm around her waist and the other held the reins. Meg, although she wasn't sure she would ever admit it to Adam, really like having him so close to her.

Several hours later when they finally arrived in front of the castle, Adam smiled down at Meg who was sleeping in his arms. He carefully dismounted, trying not to wake her as he brought her down off the horse. As he walked into the castle with Marin following him, he was greeted by Adriana and several servants. Adriana gasped when she saw Meg in Adam's arms fearing the worst. Adam tried to hush her but it was too late.

Meg stirred and opened her eyes finding herself in Adam's arms. "Adam? Are we there already? Why didn't you wake me up?"

Adam slowly set her legs down so she could stand and answered, "I was hoping I could get you into bed before you noticed."

Meg smiled sleepily up at him and leaned into his chest as she looked around the room. She saw Adriana and did a slight nod in her direction as she began to fall asleep on her feet. Adam swung her up into his arms again and headed toward Meg's room. He mouthed to Adriana that he would explain later. What Adam didn't notice was that Adriana followed him up into Meg's room. She saw Adam place Meg gently on the bed, and take off her boots. He then tucked her in, clothes and all into her bed. As he finished he smiled gently and kissed Meg's forehead before turning to leave. He spied Adriana and made a silent motion for her to leave the room while he followed.

When they were out in the hall Adam began to fill in Adriana in on the events that had happened since he was in the castle last. It was very late by the time he finally climbed into his own bed.

Meg woke up to the pale light of the early morning sunlight coming in through the windows. She blinked her eyes and could only remember barely on how she got there. She rolled out of bed and stumbled into the wash room where she got ready for the day. In the back of her mind she could feel Adam still fast asleep and decided to try and find out what she missed before he woke up and began to nurse her again. As she walked into the dining room to get some breakfast she heard a familiar voice talking loudly through the halls. She peaked out to see King Dmitri storming down. She called out his name and suggested he come eat some breakfast with her. He came quickly into the room and when he got a good look at her he stopped and stared.

Meg rolled her eyes and asked if she really looked that good. He shook his head and asked why she looked so bad. As she ate she told him what had happened and how she still had some magic spells in her that were interfering with the healing spells. She found out that he had come to make sure that Marin was alright, and how nobody would tell him anything. They parted ways several hours later, Meg to find Adriana and Dmitri to see if Marin was up and taking visitors yet.

At this time, Adam found Meg. She joked with him for being a sleepy head and he told her that she still needed to be in bed. She told him that she had spoken with his father and Adam should go talk to him. Adam just shrugged and led Meg into the council room where her council was already together. She looked at them with surprise and commented that she didn't realize that they were waiting for her.

"Actually we were waiting for Adam. He was going to report to us about your recent adventure, and we assumed you would sleep through the day." Simon commented.

Meg sighed, she knew she should just give up and go back to bed, but she didn't want to make it easier on them. She sat down and listened while Adam told of her "recent adventure". Meg didn't bother commenting because she knew Adam would tell it correctly. After that the council began to catch her up on what had happened there while she was gone. She found out that half of her guests had already headed for home, while the other half were waiting for her return. Armen had returned to Mason and Leti had volunteered to go with him and be Myrr's ambassador. Meg smiled at this and wondered what would become of that.

That afternoon Meg was standing in her room fighting the need for a nap. She was looking out the window wondering when Adam was going to get there. They needed to talk. She knew he loved her, and that she loved him. But she was wondering what was going to happen when they were married. One of them was going to have to give up their throne and go to the other's country to live. She had already tried to consult the stupid scepter to see if it would let her go be Tigree's Queen but all she got from it was an angry spark. She interpreted that as a no. She was stuck in Myrr. Would Adam give up his throne to come to Myrr?

She was so occupied with these thoughts that she didn't hear Adam come into the room and come right behind her. When he noticed that she didn't realize that he was there he quickly threw his arms around her in a tight bear hug.

"What!" Meg exclaimed surprise. She calmed down when she felt it was Adam and tried to turn around so she could yell at him but he kept his tight hug in place stopping her from moving. "Adam, Let me move." She protested.

"Not till you tell me what you were thinking about." He bargained.

"No." Meg said stubbornly.

"Then I'll have to force it out of you." He said in a whisper. His mouth was right by her ear. Meg shivered as she felt his breath on her neck. His mouth moved up and down her neck as she tried to squirm away. "Tell me, Meg."

"Okay, Okay. I was wondering if you had told your father about us yet." Meg said hesitantly.

"That is the next item on my list to do. But before that is the task to get you in bed for some rest." Adam said as he released her.

"I'm not that tired." Meg protested.

"I know that is why I brought this." Adam replied as he went over to the table and picked up a cup.

Meg sniffed it and replied, "It is full of Sleepfoil. I am not going to drink that."

Adam smiled wickedly, "Yes, you are. You need some good undisturbed sleep so you can recover." He paused before continuing, "And then people will stop staring at you and saying that you look awful."

Meg made a face and weighed her options. While she didn't want to drink it and be asleep for as long as it would make her, she knew she didn't have enough energy to fight Adam on the matter for long. She sighed and held her hand out for the cup. Adam smiled broadly and gave it to her. She drank it and made her way over to her bed. When she got there she gestured for Adam to get out.

He was smiling when he was kicked out of her room, he knew that he had put enough sleepfoil in her drink to make her sleep for about two days. She would be livid at him when she woke up but she should be recovered by then. With her will to keep going, he knew that it would take her weeks to recover if he hadn't forced his hand like that to get her asleep.

Adam knew what he needed to do next and that was find his father. King Dmitri was sitting in one of the smaller libraries reading a book. When he saw Adam coming toward him he closed the book with a snap and said, "You certainly have taken your time coming to talk to me."

Wincing Adam replied, "Sorry, I had to make sure Meg was asleep before I left her, or next thing I know she would be out challenging all the guards to a duel."

Chuckling Dmitri said, "Surely she can't be that bad, can she?.."

Adam nodded before smiling, "But that is alright, because I got her to take a potion that should have her sleeping for hopefully two days."

"Good, she did not look very well when I saw her this morning." Dmitri paused before contining, "We need to talk about what is going to happen now. I know that you care for the girl."

"I know," Adam answered, "She can't leave Myrr, she is needed here, but me… I want to abdicate the throne. Marin can take it if she wants, Matt can have it, if she doesn't."

"You finally got to the point," Dmitri said with a grin, "I almost made a bet with your mother how long it would take you to realize that you loved that girl, and abdicated your throne."

Adam just looked at him shocked, "You knew I would do this? How?"

"I saw how you were with her during the war, my son. I knew that when you left for this celebration that you would not be coming back as a heir to the Tigree throne. I even talked to Marin a little bit before you left about how she felt about taking the throne. I think she is going to pass it on to Matt, who by the way is excited for it."

Adam rolled his eyes, "If he is excited, then he can have it…. Is this why you didn't want me taking over too many responsibilities between the war and the celebration?"

Nodding, Dmitri replied, "Yes, I didn't want to go to the pangs of training you if you were leaving us."

Adam just scoffed at him.

When she woke up all she could tell was that it was day. She sat up in bed and noticed a servant making her way over to Meg.

"How long have I been asleep?" Meg asked.

"Almost two days." The girl said politely.

Meg grimaced as she stood up she should have known that Adam would have had her asleep for so long.

By the time she was ready to go, it was lunch time. She made her way down to the dining room where Adam, Marin, and their father were getting ready to eat. As she walked into the room she joked with them saying, "Don't you know it is rude not to wait for your hostess."

Adam smiled at her and commented back, "Not when you're the host."

Meg looked at him confused as he stood up and walked toward her. When he was close he whispered in her ear, "Didn't you hear? You and I are getting married. That makes me the host."

Meg glared at him, "You figured everything out without me?" Not believing what he had just said.

Adam managed to look guilty as he nodded, "I even met with that lovely scepter that you are always cursing. It has accepted me. So your councilor's wish has finally come true. Myrr is going to get its king."

"But what about Tigree? Who will take over for you?" Meg asked.

"My father and I have talked it over. Marin could have it if she wants. If not my younger brother Matt will get the throne." Adam said still whispering.

She looked up at him still glaring, not sure what to make of all this. He stood there ginning foolishly at her making it hard for her to keep up her glare. She finally remarked in a gruff whisper, "You and I have a lot that we need to discuss. I can't believe you have even talked with the council, and the stupid scepter. You could have at least waited!"

He grimaced and shook his head, "Not really, Father wants to head back tomorrow. I need to go with him so I can make sure to tie up all the loose ends that I have there. I will be back soon, I promise." He sneaked at peak at her and noticed she was still glaring at him, so he decided to tell her the last bit of news. "By the way, Your council has planned the wedding to be held in two months. They are starting to draw up invitations." He winced as he said that, knowing her response to that bit of information.

"WHAT?" she shouted. She looked at him dumbfounded at what he had told her, "They couldn't have at least have checked with me? What if I don't want my wedding to be in the fall?"

Adam shrugged his shoulders looking sheepish, before turning back to his father and sister and saying, "Sorry if we are keeping you from your lunch, you should continue without us."

Meg looked at them, just barely remembering that they were there, Dmitri was laughing at them and Marin was smiling. She scowled at them, and snapped, "And what do you find so funny?"

Through his laughter, Dmitri said, "Most girls are excited that they are getting married, but not you. I find that funny."

Sending him a glare before she focused her anger back on Adam, she pulled him out of the room to an empty room across the hall. "I can't believe that you made all these decisions without me!" She accused him.

Wincing at her words he commented back, "Well I have to leave tomorrow and you were asleep."

"I was asleep because of that potion you made me drink. You shouldn't have made it that strong, if you needed me awake." She shot back.

With a thoughtful look on his face he replied, "Yes, I could have made it not as strong but then you would have not have gotten the sleep and you wouldn't be better now, you would have dragged on and on for weeks before you finally gotten better. I thought that having you feeling better sooner was more important."

"I am thankful that I am feeling better but I would have liked to been there when you talked to the council and confronted the stupid scepter." She answered back.

Adam smiled because he could feel her calming down and accepting what had happened. "Well your councilors looked positively happy when I made the request for your hand in marriage. In fact I think Adriana almost fainted, I take it she had almost given up on you." When Meg made a scoffing sound and nothing less Adam continued. "I even think that they glad that it is me and not some of the other knuckleheads that had been hanging around." He said smugly.

"I doubt that the council even knew that they were knuckleheads. They probably just saw a handsome potential king." She said gruffly.

"Maybe, anyway the council was so happy that they swept me into the throne room and practically shoved the scepter into my hands. I was going to wait for you to be awake for that one, but it happened much faster than I expected." He stopped and studied her looking for her reaction. She just wearily motioned for him to continue. "First the scepter did nothing and I felt like a fool standing there with everyone standing staring at me, then it started to feel warm in my hands. Then to my surprise the blasted thing started showering blue and green sparks all over the place. Everyone started cheering so I took it to be a good sign." Adam finished with a shrug. He looked over at her and saw her sigh, he smiled and apologized hopefully, "I'm sorry I did this without you, but once it got started it was hard to stop."

"I know how that goes, it actually happens a lot with my councilors. As you will soon find out." She suddenly smiled wickedly at him.

"Why does that fill me with sudden dread?" he asked.

Meg came close to him and said wickedly, "It means that I can disappear and leave you to deal with it."

Adam caught her in his arms and replied, "Oh no, my dear. That will not do. I refuse to be left to do this on my own." He looked down at her upturned face, "You're also assuming that you can escape me." She had time to smile before he bent his head down to kiss her.


	34. Epilogue

Epilogue

Adam was briskly walking down the halls down to the practice courts, he wasn't happy when he found out that that was where Meg had been all morning. He was half-way there when he saw Tanget and Meg walking towards him.

Meg took one look at his face and groaned to Tanget, "I wonder what he is upset about."

Tanget chuckled at her and answered, "Probably the same thing that I have been pestering you about all morning."

Making a face she turned to her husband of a year and a half and innocently asked, "You seem upset over something, Is there anything I can do to help?"

"You could help by not pushing yourself." Adam nearly shouted. "Why in the world were you at the practice courts all morning?"

Looking affronted, she replied, "I was reviewing the guard with Tanget. And before you ask I did not pick up a single weapon. I knew that you would yell at me for that, and the fact that Tanget wouldn't let me."

Adam looked over at Tanget who nodded with agreement with her, and sighed, "It is good that since you have no sense to keep still while you are with child that other people around you keep you from exerting yourself."

Meg scoffed at him, "I'm not even showing yet." She argued back, "There are many women who do work up until they have their baby, and here I am not even allowed to even to do anything. Stop being so overprotective, I am not going to hurt myself."

That caused both Adam and Tanget to start laughing, "You always say that, My Queen." Tanget started, "But what about the time a year ago when you rode to help the guard with something and you got wounded in the fight."

"Or the time," Adam interrupted, "That you were racing with your horse and the horse bucked you off nearly breaking your neck."

"There was that time when she," Tanget started before Meg stopped him.

"Alright, Alright. So little things like that happen but surely I am not going to hurt myself by just looking at the guards practice. I have already promised you not to do any sword play until the baby is born so you should just relax."

Tanget still chuckling, bowed to her and left her with Adam.

"Come on," Adam said while he put his arm over his shoulder, "We are supposed to be getting ready for King Armen's visit tomorrow. If you remember he is bringing his wife, Leti with him. I know you are looking forward to seeing her."

"I am. I haven't seen her since their wedding seven months ago. I miss her."

"First, let's get some lunch. Then the councilors want to have a meeting about Armen's visit. And you know how long that will take. Then after dinner I believe the seamstress was hoping for some time. She wants to refit some of your gowns."

Meg made a face at his last comment. "I'm not even showing yet, I can't believe she thinks she needs to refit them."

Adam gave a laugh and then gave her a quick kiss, before leading her down the hallway, "Come, my Love. The affairs of the kingdom await."


End file.
